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A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 




AN ARAB GIRL 
From a Painting by Lys Forster 



A Woman in the 
Sahara 



BY 



HELEN C. GORDON 



WITH A FRONTISPIECE IN COLOUR AND 
z6 ILLUSTRATIONS IN MONOTONE 



Beautiful Days of Sand and Sun^' 




NEW YORK 
FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS 






Copyright, 1914, hy 
Frederick A. Stokes Company 



All rights reserved 



□ 



October, 1914 



OCT 19 ISI4 

©CI,A380918 



57 



DEDICATION 

Hall to thee, O Sun ! Not the pale reflexion of 
thyself that fitfully illumines the blue skies of 
Northern Europe or glooms, a ball of dusky red, 
through grey cold mist and fog; but thou indeed! 
a superb, luminous, hot sun set in a heaven so radi- 
ant, so opalescent, that this plateau in another con- 
tinent; this oasis, on a wide stretch of table-land, 
lifted out of sand wastes and arid rocky plains; 
bathed in the fulness of thy glory, seems outside our 
waking hours, where we may be transported only 
in our dreams. 



CONTENTS 
PART I — ON A PLATEAU 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I The Place of Happiness .... 3 

II The Diffa 17 

III El Oued 26 

IV The Great Feasts ...... 42 

V A " NuMERO " 54 

VI The Sorceress 63 

VII El Hamel: The "Lost Town" . . 72 

VIII Fantasia 86 

IX An Infallible Cure 93 

X Hafsa 100 

XI The Rites for Rain 112 

XII Nailia 120 

PART II — IN THE M'ZAB 

XIII The Caravan Route to the M'zab . 131 

XIV The Elect of Allah 142 

XV The Interpreter 156 

XVI The Sacred City of the Abadia . . 166 

PART III — AMONGST MOUNTAINS 
XVII The Magician 179 

XVIII The Iron Mines of the Western Zac- 

CAR 191 

XIX The Wife of Mahomed Azzizi . . 196 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

XX The Coming of the Bride .... 207 

XXI The Great Fast 214 

XXII A Fete of Ramadhane 223 

XXIII Mektouh Rebbi 228 

XXIV Essence of Roses 237 

PART IV — IN CONSTANTINE 

XXV In the Footsteps of Rome . , . .257 

XXVI The Enchanted Palace of Hadj 

Ahmed 263 

XXVII Memories of Salah Bey 287 

XXVIII The Darwishes 295 

XXIX A Stroll and a Morning Call . . 302 

XXX The Gate of the Desert . . . .314 

XXXI Villages of the South 319 

XXXII Dawn and Sunset 329 

XXXIII The Story of Si Mahmoud Saadi; a 

Child of Misfortune 339 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

An Arab Girl Frontispiece 



FACING 
PAGE 



Cave Dwellings near the River 26^ 

The River 40 /^ 

Nakhla 54 i-^ 

Watching the Fantasia on the Race Course . . . 112*^ 

Women of the Ouled Nail 124^ 

The Oasis of Laghouat 132-' 

The Diligence Crossing the Steppe to Ghardaia . . 138"^ 

Ei-Ateuf 142^ 

A M'Zabite Mosque . 156^ 

A Kabyle Village 208^ 

The Tirouda Pass 232^ 

A Winter Scene in Kabyle 238 ^ 

Constantine. The Arab Quarter 264 a 

A Street in Constantine 302'^ 

The Gate of the Desert . . . .314/ 

Si Mahmoud Saadi 340^ 



. GLOSSARY 

Adha'ia, Sort of blouse worn by women. 
Abka dla Kheir, Good-bye. 
Achourd, Festival. 
Aid-el-Kebir, The great feast. 
Allahou akber, God is the greatest. 

Bahut, CofiFer. 

Baraka, The sacred force. 

Bendir(s), bnader(pl), Tomtom. 

Berkouks, Pellets of a kind of couscous. 

Besqa, A game of cards. 

Bidi, Fine Burnous. 

Bismillah, Blessing before killing animals or game: grace before 

meat. 
Bourriquot, Popular name for an Algerian donkey. 
Burnous, Cloak, with a hood like a friar's, worn by men. 

Ca'id, Arab functionary who acts as intermediary between Govern- 
ment officials and the natives. 
Cadi, Judge. 
Chechia, Fez. 
Cherchem, Dish of beans. 
Cherif, Nobleman. 
Couscous, Grains of flour. 
Couscous or Couscousouj The national dish. 

Dashera, A Berber village. 

Defla, Oleanders. 

Dhour, Second prayer of the day. 

Diffa, Banquet: repast. 

Djedouel, Amulet. 

Djeldjdla, Golden drops. 



xii A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

Djemmd, Mosque: club. Lit. Meeeting-house. 

Djinn, Devil. 

Dokana(s), dokanat(pl), Stone bench to lie on. 

El-Eugmi, Palm wine. 

El Had], The pilgrim (to Mecca). 

El Hamel, The lost one. 

El Kadr, The night of unalterable decision. 

El Oued, The river. 

El R'Orab, The crow. 

Emshi, Go. 

Emshi besselema. Go in peace: good-bye. 

Enndir, Fete of the New Year. 

Fantasia, Fete: frivolity. 

Fedjer, Prayer at dawn. 

Fellah, Tiller of the soil. 

Feloudj(s) feloudji(pl). Tent covering. 

Filali, Red leather riding boots. 

Fondouk, Stables: an Arab inn. 

Fouta, Pinafore frock. 

Gandoura(s) Guenader(pl), Sleeveless shirt worn by men, also an 

underfrock worn by women. 
Gherib, Strange ; stranger. 

Goum, Mounted troop ; followers of a chieftain. 
Goumier, Soldier. 
Guemira, Pyramidal sign post. 

Habibka, Friend. 

Hadida, Preparation for dyeing the hair. 

Ha'ik, Head covering which frames the face. 

Halib, Milk. 

Henneh, Cosmetic for the nails and hands. 

Herz, A talisman: a preservative. 

Iman, Reader in a mosque. 

Inshallah or In chah Allah, God willing. 

Irathen (Kabyle), Pedlars. 



GLOSSARY xiii 

Ja, Yes. 

Jemmal, Camel driver. 

Keskds, Perforated cooking pot. 

Khalouk, Rouge. 

Khams, Charm: hand of Fatima. 

Khamsa, Five. 

Kharedjites, Those who go out (from orthodoxy). 

Khouan, Brother of a religious order. 

Khouime, The fifth. 

Kif, Preparation of opium for smoking. 

Koh'eul, Black powder: a cosmetic. 

Kouba, Mausoleum. 

Koura, Game of ball. 

Ksar, Headquarters of a tribe: a village. 

L'Aser, Prayer at dawn. 

Leben, Curdled milk. 

Leila, Madame: lady. 

'Lhamdoulah, Thanks be to God. Please God. 

Louga, Short veil. 

Ma'idn, Person reputed to have the evil eye. 

Makhzen, Cavaliers du, Arab soldiers wearing a blue burnous. 

Maroued, Silver ornament to hold koh'eul. 

Medersa, College. 

Mehari, Quick trotting camel. 

Mehariste, Rider on a camel. 

Mekhtoume, Wine of Paradise. 

Mektoub rebbi. It was written. 

Mclh'afa(s) melah'af(pl) , Large piece of stuff worn by women 
wound twice round the body and fastened on the shoulders, or 
else put right over the head to cover them all over. 

Melqa r rabi, Festival of spring. 

Mendil(s) mendilat(pl), Kerchief covering the head. 

Mesh'iue, Sheep roasted whole. 

Met'rek, Thick stick carried by nomads. 

Mihrdb, Niche in a Mosque pointing to the East. 

Mimbar, Pulpit in a Mosque. 

Mogh'reb, Prayer at sunset: the West: Morocco. 

Mokhazni, Soldiers of the blue burnous. 



xlv A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

Mou'abbir, Pious man able to read and write. 

Mouhatmn, Guardian. 

Mouloud, The Prophet's birthday. 

M'rabet(m) M'rabta(f), Head of a religious order by hereditary 

right only. 
Muezzin, The crier from the minaret. 

Nakhla, Palm tree: a girl's name. 
Nazil, A newcomer. 
Nefs, Soul: breath. 

Oua Aleikoume Esselema, And with you peace. 
Ouali, Saint: friend of God. 
Oued, River. 

Qua'ita, Flute. 

Ramadhane, The great fast. 

Regouba, Circle, or horseshoe of stones. 

Rhiqi, Wine of Paradise. 

Roba, Woman's dress. 

Roumi(m) roumya(f) rouama(pl), Stranger: Christian. 

Rouh beVafia, Good-bye. 

Sahfa, Large shallow dish. 

Salamoune aleikoume Esseleme, Peace be unto you. 

Shouf, Show; look. 

Si, Mr. 

Sidi, Sir. 

Sirath, The bridge which spans hell. 

Smog, Magic ink. 

Soff, Political party. 

Sokhab, Tiara of coins. 

Soudouk, Box. 

Spahi, Soldier with red burnous and vest. 

T'aleb, A scholar. 

Tellis, Sack for loading up a camel. 
Tenebria, Decree of banishment. 
Tolba, Clergy. 

Zaou'ia, Koranic College. 
Zerda, Banquet of charity. 



PART I 
ON A PLATEAU 



CHAPTER I 

THE PLACE OF HAPPINESS 

" Comme toutes les villes du desert . . . bati 
sur un plan simple, qui consiste a diminuer Vespace 
au profit de I'ombre. C'est un compose de ruelles, 
de corridors, d'impasses, de fondouks" 

E. Fromentin. 

" Un marche arabe . . . est, en effet, un des mu- 

sees les plus curieux quon puisse offrir a Vanalyse 

d'un observateur attentif" ^ „ 

' C. Richard. 

"II est curieux de constater I'universalite, de la 
croyance dans tons les ages et dans toutes les races, 
que Vhomme a ete cree avec la poussiere, des pierres, 
de la substance minerale." 

September 301?^, 19 12. 

WE iarrlved more than a fortnight ago, Li- 
sette and I, after a very tiring journey 
from Paris to Algiers, for which we were 
amply compensated, after turning our backs on that 
somewhat disappointing port, by the ten hours' driv^ 
to this far away fairyland, 150 miles from the mad- 
dening crowd. 



4 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

Even In Africa the morning of the 14th was 
cloudy and damp ; and as I sleepily began to ponder 
whether my quest in search of the sun was, after all, 
fruitless — if, perhaps, he were on strike here as he 
had been in Europe throughout the whole of a mis- 
erable summer — I was hurried out of bed to dress 
and pack before seven o'clock, and by eight we were 
already out of sight of the sea, en route in a motor 
car for the Place of Happiness. During that hour 
we had followed the coast line a very short distance 
on a flat and uninteresting road, and this enabled 
us to get properly settled and well rolled up in our 
rugs before the auto bore off to the right and our 
attention was diverted from our comfort to the scen- 
ery. 

We looked out now upon well-wooded heights on 
the one hand; on the other, down steep declivities, 
with not always too much margin beyond the car as 
we wound round and upwards Into the mountains, 
on a fine road and well kept that would in itself sus- 
tain, if necessary, the world-wide reputation of 
French engineers. Across the ravines were other 
hills; and now and again, through a gap, we could 
catch glimpses of a range still more distant. Then 
we descended suddenly; turned a somewhat sharp 
corner and climbed up endlessly to arrive in grey 
cloudland, where it was drizzling; and to our annoy- 
ance the whole of the landscape, beneath and around, 
was blotted out by the rain. 

At last we simply ran away: out of this chill, 
cheerless region downi to a level where the rain 



THE PLACE OF HAPPINESS 5 

could not follow us, but only the scent, on the soft 
damp air, of eucalyptus and pine. A genial warmth 
crept into the atmosphere, and after we had sped 
quickly through one or two small Arab villages, the 
sun condescended to emerge from the clouds as we 
arrived at Aumale, which lies outside the fringe of 
that magical country he claims for his own. 

Here, one-half of our journey completed, we 
cried a halt, both being famished after our long 
morning in the mountains; so the sight of an Inn was 
welcome, even if In Itself It looked hardly attractive. 
However, we had an excellent breakfast and a rest 
for a couple of hours; for there Is nothing to see In 
the little town on the spurs of Jebel Dira : Its glory 
as an Important station on the Roman road to Mau- 
retania having departed long since with its ancient 
name of Auzia. 

At two o'clock we started on our last stage, and 
presently found ourselves In the midst of an un- 
known, strange land, yet most curiously famlHar, of 
course, owing to Its resemblance to biblical scenes; 
recalling passages In the history of patriarchs and 
prophets and of the forty years the Israelites wan- 
dered in the arid wilderness of Shur. Many a 
beautiful painting I had seen came back to memory, 
but not one In which had been faithfully reproduced 
these colours, or this light. 

Sometimes we overtook a caravan of dromedaries 
and their attendant jemmals.^ So much a part of 
the landscape were they that no one could doubt 

i Camel drivers. 



6 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

they were born of It. Not growing slowly with 
years, but fashioned at once as they stood: the men 
changed from the stones of the wayside into chil- 
dren of Abraham, the breath of life breathed into 
their nostrils; the beasts, with their long, supple 
necks and high humps moulded suddenly out of the 
earth. 

What marvellous earth! It varied In delicate 
pastel shades from white — faintly tinted — to cit- 
ron, deep lemon, ochre, tawny yellow, dark brown: 
and the flints bestrewing it supplied the cold note 
of stone colour: while the occasional pasturage, 
where sheep and goats grazed, Its herbs Hghtly pow- 
dered with fine dust, was grey-green as one neared 
it and pale reseda from afar off. 

For long intervals there was not a sign of life any- 
where : nothing moved save ourselves, not a figure 
or creature : not a leaf stirred of the infrequent trees 
under a cloudless blue heaven, for the fresh breeze 
of the morning, outside the boundary line wherein 
dwells enchantment, had died on the threshold, 
afraid to dispute the kingdom of atmosphere with 
so jealous a sun. Soon the peaks of the tawny 
brown mountains were aflame with his glory; and, 
in the west, the blue of the sky was lost In a glow of 
rose colour and purple; In the warmth of his regal 
good-night to the world ere he sank to his bed in 
vast wastes of sand dunes, shifting and golden. 

We put on speed now, to reach our destination 
before evening, and swung round the base of a hill, 
jutting out like a promontory, which conceals the 



THE PLACE OF HAPPINESS 7 

Place of Happiness from the long level road, just 
as some last rays caught the sugar cone top of a 
koiiha: the white plaster tomb of a saint, which 
stands peacefully sentinel by the wayside at the main 
approach to the town. Five minutes more brought 
us Into the big Market Square, chased by a crowd 
of tatterdemalions shouting the names of the inns 
—"Petit Sahara" or " I'Oasis "— with the full 
strength of their lungs. 

As soon as we were sufficiently rested we began 
to explore the town, which bewildered me at first 
and I felt in a maze; for the little alleys exist only 
to oblige the houses crowded together In a mass 
built, apparently, anywhere, facing this way, or that, 
without rhyme or reason. Often we chose out a 
promising passage only to find our progress sud- 
denly stopped by the door of some private abode, 
or by a blank wall. What lay behind? Looking 
up at a barred aperture, perhaps only the vacant 
stare of emptiness met our gaze; but we might be 
rewarded by the glimpse of a braceletted arm, or a 
half-veiled face, speedily withdrawn. Large doors, 
ajar, afforded mysterious peeps into gloomy roofed 
corridors, propped up with rude joists: whither did 
they lead? The little alleys were sometimes so 
steep that they naturally resolved themselves into 
steps, and we climbed up with the Idea of getting a 
view, but when we arrived at the top were just as 
much shut in by high walls, houses, or welrd-looking 
courts, filled with camels and boiirrlquots? 

- Popular name for the Algerian donkey. 



8 A, WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

At last we decided that the Ghetto, where the 
Jews have their synagogue, was the main artery, 
from which trunk issues several branches : sometimes 
warped and bending back to end in a triangular fork 
— an open three-cornered space, with, or without 
other outlets — or else ending in futile tAvigs, cut 
off short — paths leading nowhere. The trunk 
road itself soon narrows into a tortuous lane de- 
scending slowly to high-walled gardens, below which 
runs the river, with artificial banks, banded in on 
both sides by hundreds of date palms; and beyond 
that stretches a desert of sand. 

Where the slope begins, the street obligingly 
bends its back, almost into a semi-circle, animated 
no doubt by a feeling of politeness to the Mosque, 
which has taken an outward curve in the course of 
years. It is the oldest Mahomedan temple in the 
town; built on a little hill that lifts it out of the 
chaos of mud houses, so that its highest terrace 
commands a wide view of roofs : some high, some 
low, square, or rectangular, ranging in shade from 
white that is dingy, to dust colour and grey, but 
occasionally bright crimson with a thickly strewn car- 
pet of chilis dyed red by the sun. 

Coming down from our survey, past the school- 
room whence issued a drowsy murmur of young 
voices, to the door of the sanctuary itself, we con- 
tented ourselves with a passing glance, for an iman ^ 
was reading aloud, and turned into the twilight of a 
long roofed-in descending corridor, lined on one side 
^A pious man appointed to read in the Mosques. 



THE PLACE OF HAPPINESS 9 

with dokanat,* each the length of a man. All were 
occupied by white-robed figures making simultane- 
ously the prescribed genuflexions and we crept 
quickly and quietly by as they humbly prostrated 
themselves In prayer. Out again then, into the sun- 
shine of the little court, where a palm-tree leans 
against the curving walls and a little space Is set 
apart for a bier and assigned to the last friend of 
the dead. 



On our homeward way we looked over several 
empty huts, for Lisette was In search of a studio in 
which to paint Arab interiors. Some have only one 
floor, flush with the ground; or, It would be more 
correct to say that a portion of bare earth has been 
walled in with mud and, within this enclosure, a 
stone way leads through the half-open roof to the 
terrace above. There are many more important 
dwellings, however, with an upper story and a tiny 
balcony, or a flight of rickety wooden steps outside 
to the ground for the benefit of the top floor fam- 
ily. 

In the oldest, most congested part of the town 
there are picturesque projections which jut out to 
rest the more securely on the edge of a friendly 
wall opposite. They thus form a wide shelter and, 
as a natural consequence, an Arab Club — a 
djemmd,^ where the men meet, usually to gossip and 

* Stone benches. 

'^ Literally a meeting place. 



10 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

loaf, though one member may bring a baby to mind 
and another his sewing. 

For here, as always in the East, it is the men who 
wield the needle, squatting with their backs against 
the lintels of the doors and using their toes for the 
winding of cotton or silk. Looking into the little 
windowless cubicles which line the Jew street, they 
can be seen embroidering the high backs of Arab 
saddles, purses, or fans. In other alleys may be 
heard the whir-r-r of sewing machines, with toilers 
working from dawn to dusk perched on uncomfort- 
able chairs. 

The women, apart from their household affairs, 
fined down to simplicity itself, work at weaving the 
burnous,^ which is stretched on a frame reaching 
nearly across the hut — practically the only piece of 
furniture it contains. They squat on the ground, 
as many as three in a row, and work away in the 
semi-darkness; automatically, it must be supposed, 
since many are blind of one eye at least, for ophthal- 
mia is painfully prevalent everywhere. 

The house Lisette has hired (for four francs a 
month) is a fair specimen of most one-storied huts. 
The outer apartment, sunk a little below the road 
level, is rectangular in shape, with its centre exposed 
to whatever weather it please Heaven to send. The 
roof at either end is propped up with rude palm- 
tree posts, and a hearth has been hollowed out be- 
neath a hole through which a fraction of smoke 
from the fire finds means of escape. This, with an 

^ Long mantle with a hood shaped like a friar's. 



THE PLACE OF HAPPINESS ii 

uncosy corner of stone which fits the angle facing 
the door, may be called the only fixtures the land- 
lord provides. 

Adjoining this shed (for It Is little else, affording 
shelter for donkeys and mules as well as men) is 
the women's apartment — a long, narrow cell with- 
out any aperture for light or air save the smoke- 
hole of their hearth: a fell trap for any heedless 
stray sunbeams which are caught and imprisoned in 
the blackness beneath. 

Yet the studio has Its charms. The walls, sun- 
dried and smoked by the hearth fires to an unique, 
nameless, composite tone, makes a beautiful back- 
ground for gorgeous, many-hued draperies, when 
the golden light streams in upon the posturing mod- 
els. Everything Is so delightfully irresponsible : so 
out of the usual and, especially, of the perpendicu- 
lar: walls, roof, joists, and, above all, the palm-tree 
door, which Is a joy with huge beams lengthwise 
and athwart, and a lock such as Noah probably used 
when he bolted himself and his family Into the Ark. 
It Is made of two pieces of wood, one of which, 
ten Inches long by four wide. Is attached vertically 
to the door and Is hollowed out In the centre with a 
little ledge, having three holes wherein repose an 
equal number of wooden nails with large heads. 
The hollow receives Into it a bolt, also of wood, 
an Inch and a half wide and as long as you like, 
with three holes Into which the nails drop and the 
door Is effectually locked. It is under these holes 
that, to open the door, a wooden comb — or should 



12 A, WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

I say key? — with three teeth, is inserted vertically 
and fiddled with, till the nails are forced up and 
the bolt is released. This operation may, or may 
not, sound simple, but in effect it is most compli- 
cated, and haste is fatal! Taking this Into consid- 
eration, together with the weight of the door, which 
is beyond thinking, I have fully determined that 
should I ever be imprisoned behind one, my only 
chance of escape will be out through the roof, or 
over the walls, however undignified such modes of 
exit. 

Of course the house was badly In need of repair, 
and would still be unmended, had it not been for the 
Insistence of SIdl Siliman, who was called in to the 
rescue. Now the masons have gone; the last one, 
with a kindly thoughtfulness, which we much appre- 
ciate, having planted his open hand deep in the wet 
mud over the doorway, as a certain protection to 
us all from the baleful glance of an evil eye. 

Horseshoes and crescents are common enough, 
and horns are also renowned for their magical gift 
of repulsion; but the power of the open hand, with 
its outspread five fingers, is in the highest repute 
to shield one from the envious piercing look of a 
ma'idn,'^ who, viper-like, can discharge an invisi- 
ble poison, deadly enough to break a stone into 
pieces, or, worse still, take human life. 

By the time the studio was in readiness, I had 
learned which paths to take, and which to avoid. 
Also that, facing westwards, all roads led into the 

'' Person reputed to have the evil eye. 



THE PLACE OF HAPPINESS 13 

Market Square, at the most distant corner of which 
stands our hotel, where from the vantage-ground of 
my balcony, I see the life — that is, the active man's 
life — of the town, like a character play, being en- 
acted and reenacted beneath and around me. 

Looking out, to my left, is a wide sweep of road- 
way bending round and upward, above which, 
through trees, I get a peep of the Fort; built high 
on a ledge of solid rock to command the European 
quarter, and with public gardens which form the 
north side of the Square. Where the gardens 
cease, lies the road to Algiers, its other side flanked 
by the little, low shops of M'Zabite traders : their 
shelves stocked with bright-coloured muslins and 
silks, boots of sheepskin dyed yellow or red, coffers 
and purses, fans to chase away eyeflies, and long 
knives in their rose-coloured sheaths. These build- 
ings form a boundary line north and east broken by 
the chief street of the Ghetto and by two alleys, out 
of my range of vision. 

To-day, Monday, high market is held; and round 
a fountain shaded by trees, of which I can just get 
a glimpse, the vendors of various fruits of the earth 
are squatted, or lying, amongst garden produce, 
which, spread over the ground in wonderful oriental 
disorder, of course is attracting millions of flies. 
Apricots, peaches, and especially grapes, there are 
in profusion — great purple bunches costing a tri- 
fle; and beautiful dates, for this place vies with the 
south in the quality of the rich brown fruit, which 
divides, like a wreath, the green plumes of the palm- 



14 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

trees. " Every day brings its bread," says the Arab, 
with unquestioning faith in a bountiful Providence; 
but, seemingly, so pressed are these gardeners for 
the wherewithal to obtain it, that apricots and 
pomegranates are, alas ! spoiled by being plucked 
long before they are ripe. 

The other half of the poor population are keepers 
of sheep ; and as a herd is driven across the Square 
there ensues a scene of wildest confusion, for, at 
the north road, they fall in with a drove of drome- 
daries, laden with brown sacks of grain and great 
piles of merchandise, bound for the Messageries' 
Office in the colonnade of the inn. 

The air resounds with a rumbling murmur of 
strange tongues: of guttural throat articulations, 
raised only above a monotone when a serious quar- 
rel is in progress and such phrases as, " Son of a 
dog! " " Accursed son of an accursed father! " are 
bandied about; or an Arab from the plains calls a 
Kabyle, " Eater of acorns I " ^ In contempt and de- 
rision. 

Vendors and buyers are garbed, for the greater 
part, in a white ffandoiira, a long, sleeveless shirt; 
over which is worn a burnous, most usually the nat- 
ural colour of the sheep from whose fleece it is 
woven; but, ever and anon, the eye is caught by the 
bright blue, or heliotrope, or yellow shirt of some 
lad; a crimson-shrouded form skirting the edge of 
a group of unheeding men; or the scarlet petticoat 

^ The acorns of the mountains are almost as nice as chestnuts. 



THE PLACE OF HAPPINESS 15 

bordered with purple or green of an unveiled Jew- 
ess. 

An Arab from the south wears a black burn- 
ous, and the olive tint of his skin strikes a me- 
dium note between complexions rivaling the white- 
ness of Europe and those of a swarthiness which be- 
tokens the mixture of Moorish blood; while the half- 
naked hide of the negro Bou-Saadias ^ is like pol- 
ished jet, as to the strumming of tomtoms, with hid- 
eous grimaces and weird barbaric gestures, they per- 
form a wild dance for the benefit of the crowd. The 
drum of the Jew town-crier beats a loud tatoo in op- 
position; and attention is further diverted by the ar- 
rival of an archaic diligence, painted orange and 
green, dragged across the Square by six weary 
horses. 

Lounging, or sitting outside the cafes near the 
fountain, or promenading in twos and threes, are 
the prosperous idlers; beautifully attired, for, 
" please yourself in what you eat, but others in what 
you wear," says the Arab; so his white haik ^^ is ad- 
justed to a nicety over his Chechia ^^ and bound with 
coils of brown camel's hair. Monday is a lucky day 
to put on a new garment, for it is sure to attract a 
" blessing from heaven." His burnous, therefore, 
which he carries with such dignity, is spotless : dyed 
to some colour he particularly fancies : some shade 

^ Jolly fellows. 

i<> Piece of white linen carried up the back of the neck and over 
the head. 

11 Sort of red fez. 



1 6 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

of cinnamon, ginger or clove; of the blue grape; of 
red wine; of dates; or, of pomegranate juice. 

Meanwhile the sun has risen high in the heavens. 
The beggar, whose frequent " Ah ja! " ^^ com- 
mencing some verse from the Koran which woke 
me at six, has dragged his legless self painfully 
across the Square and is at last silent. For a couple 
of hours past many swathed mummy-like forms 
have been ranged in a row beneath the shade of 
the trees, which droop over the palisade of the Gar- 
dens. Gradually the hubbub, the loud tomtoms, the 
sounds of bartering, of anger, have died down and 
ceased. The crowd has dispersed. Few figures 
pass beneath my windows now; but, ever and anon, 
some stray Mussulmen stoop to perform their ablu- 
tions in the little stream of fresh water which runs 
along the line of roadway; then, they also cross, to 
sit upon the benches opposite and wait. The 
Square, save for them and the sleepers, is empty. 
My clock points to close upon three. It is L'Aser.^^ 
Listen! On the hot air is borne faintly, from the 
north and the east, a long-drawn-out, plaintive ap- 
peal. ^' Allah-o-u — Ak-ber,"^^ Then peace. The 
faithful are at prayer. 

12 Oh, yes! 

1^ The 3rd invocation of the day. 
' 1* God is great. 



CHAPTER II 

THE DIFFA 

" C'est dans les moeurs arabes un acte serieux de 
manger et de donner a manger, et une diffa est une 
haute legon de savoir vivre, de generos'ite, de preven- 
ances mutuelles" Fromentin. 

October nth, 1913- 

WERE I to say that we went out to dinner 
last night, it would by no means convey 
any idea of the unique entertainment at 
which v/e were present. As a matter of fact, we 
attended a difa,'^ given in honour of the few Euro- 
pean strangers who have met in this out of the way 
corner of the globe. 

It had rained slightly during the day and the 
evening was cloudy, so Lisette's boy, Abdurahman 
(whom she employs to carry her easel and play at 
being a servant) was told to borrow the hotel lamp 
and escort us at a quarter to seven. However, at 
the eleventh moment, when we were starting, he 
announced that he could not light it because it had 
not been charged, so we left him behind and sallied 
forth in the dark. It was all well enough in the 
Square, thanks to the French chemist's and grocer's 

^Repast: banquet. 



1 8 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

shops, but after we passed the big communal school 
at the corner, we had to climb up a path of ill paved 
stairway, leading under a wide arch, with a weird, 
uncanny corridor on the left: a fitting promenade 
for ghosts and djinns? When we reached it we 
were relieved to find a wall lamp above our heads, 
throwing a welcome light here, and making dark- 
ness more visible beyond; but, gathering our finery 
about us, we plunged into black night, groped our 
way round a nasty corner, and emerged into our 
last alley, where we found servants with lanterns 
awaiting the guests. 

The house to which we were bidden was built by a 
late Cai'd on a plan very general for homes of the 
wealthy in towns of the oasis. The high door, 
painted green, led directly into a square courtyard 
round which ran the servants' quarters and the sta- 
bles. We crossed to its farthest corner and climbed 
up some very steep and rough stone steps which led 
to the terrace above. Here were some rooms and 
beyond them an arched gallery divided by pillars 
into two compartments open to the east. In the 
narrowest portion stood a dining table with covers 
for the nine guests assembled in the lounge, amongst 
whom were three painters of oriental life and 
scenery; an officer of the garrison; and a naturalist, 
who has been living amongst Maoris for some years, 
studying creeping things in New Zealand and has 
now transferred his microscopic attentions to North 
African creatures. He is putting up at our hotel 

2 Devils. 



THE DIFFA 19 

and we had not been long In discovering his occupa- 
tion, for he had hardly arrived when his boy let a 
scorpion escape, and whilst the whole staff of the inn 
was hunting for it, I found that a family of tor- 
toises led by papa and mamma had climbed out of 
their bucket and were en route for my bedroom. 
However, we bore him no grudge on account of 
his disagreeable pets, and we were all known to 
each other except the Arab guests: a magistrate 
and a poet, whose beautiful clothing, enhanced by 
the decorations presented by a grateful Government 
for their services, quite put the rest of us into the 
shade. 

Whether it was the novelty of the cooking, I 
cannot say, but the food — all a I'Arabe — seemed 
to me the most delicious I had ever tasted; though 
It was somewhat satisfying and, to my regret, I was 
obliged to let one dish pass me by untasted. 

Thick soup had been followed by a ragout of 
mutton, vegetables and fruits, and the servant was 
really so hospitable and kind in pointing out spe- 
cial delicacies, which I must take, that my helping 
became far more liberal than I ever Intended, or 
could eat. 

Couscousou, the next course, is the national dish, 
and on that account as well as because It is worth It, 
deserves special mention. The main Ingredient is 
very fine flour, put into a large wooden platter, 
called a sahfa, over which water is poured and the 
mixture rolled by hand Into little Ivory-white seeds. 
It is then shaken through a sieve and allowed to 



20 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

dry; after which it can be kept for a year or so. 
When cooking, the coiiscousou is steamed through 
a vessel ^ pierced with holes over a saucepan of boil- 
ing water, or soup; and at this difa the tiny white 
grains were served alone, followed by a rich gravy 
to be poured over them, according to taste. 

Then ensued a slight pause in the proceedings till 
my neighbours gave me a hint to look round in time 
to witness the arrival of a sheep impaled on long 
skewers, roasted whole and reposing on a huge brass 
platter, borne up the steps by two servants. Who 
has not eaten mutton thus prepared has no idea how 
good mutton really is ! The Arabs are greatly to be 
congratulated on this discovery, even if we do not 
concede to them the " invention of roast beef," 
claimed on their behalf by a French writer, who as- 
serts it is impertinent of us to consider it ours. 
" How pretentious some people are ! " says he. 

Until this moment, whatever our food and its 
preparation, our table customs had been strictly 
European, else had we all been squatting on mats 
round a table no higher than a stool, each armed 
with a wooden spoon, helping ourselves to soup, or 
ragout, or couscoiisou, from one large platter in our 
midst, accessible to all. Etiquette lays down that 
each guest should take only a portion from the edge 
of the dish nearest himself, leaving the centre to the 
finish. Moreover, some choice morsels should re- 
main untouched that the blessing of Heaven may de- 

3 Keskas. 



THE DIFFA 21 

scend on the repast, and were a M'rahet^ present, 
he would certainly spit on them, for saliva, espe- 
cially that of the pious, is charged with baraka, the 
sacred force. 

However, with the serving of the mesh'we ^ which 
had been placed by the servants on a circular table, 
we, of the West, departed from our usual habits, 
rose from the festive board at which we had been 
seated and, surrounding the sheep, picked off pieces 
with our fingers — knives and forks being strictly 
prohibited! This reminded me a little of the snap- 
dragon of my youth, for the meat was hot and friz- 
zling, and it was a very amusing entertainment, 
which the Arabs alone took most seriously. With 
all due care, too, it was a messy business and neces- 
sitated a little troop of domestics armed with soap, 
tiny towels fringed with pink, a brass basin and a 
beautiful chased ewer; so, on the whole it was a 
comfort to play at Arab fashions only throughout 
one course and after our ablutions to return to our 
original table for European dessert and champagne. 
The Prophet strictly forbade his followers to drink 
wine, and one tradition alone, out of many, will suf- 
fice to show what a dangerous folly it Is considered. 

A woman, who wished to test the extent of her 
power over her lover and his affection for her, 
asked him to commit three crimes for her dear sake. 
At first he was resolute in his refusals, but in time 

*Holy man: the head (by heredity only) of a Mussulman Order. 
^ Sheep roasted whole. 



22 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

she so worked upon him that he yielded to the point 
of promising to break one law, and took wine, be- 
lieving that to be the least of the three sins she had 
suggested, with the fatal and inevitable result that, 
when he was drunk, he committed the other two. 

Even at a diffa, milk is the correct beverage: 
either sweet (halib) or curdled with some prepara- 
tion that is put into it; but the Arabs of our party 
had been for long emancipated from all such old- 
fashioned notions; and, as the Commandant wick- 
edly remarked, filling up the while a bumper for the 
Cai'd, " We all know it turns to leben ^ w your 
throat! " This jest provoked smiles from all the 
European guests, but throughout the evening the 
Arabs preserved an impassive demeanour. Not that 
they are lacking in a sense of humour — far from it 
— but they prefer, and quite naturally, that the joke 
should be at our expense, not theirs. At the car- 
nivals In the interior, at Touggourt and Ouargla, I 
am told it is no uncommon sight to be treated to ex- 
cellent and most amusing Imitations of the clothes, 
manners, and foibles of the tourists, especially of 
the English. 

It is curious to find that a people, entirely negli- 
gent of detail in their buildings, their furniture, their 
household arrangements, not to mention sanitation 
and personal hygiene, should be so extraordinarily 
observant and interested in the most delicate 
minutiae of character and physiognomy. Nor do 
they rest content with an examination of the face 
« Curdled milk. 



THE DIFFA 23 

alone: the walk and the figure of an individual con- 
vey to them definite traits of the mind, which they 
have a quick Instinct to grasp. Well-proportioned 
eyes, they say, denote wisdom; those elongated at 
the corners, extravagance and folly. Heavy eye- 
brows show a jealous disposition. A big nose is al- 
ways an object of raillery and a story Is told of a 
wooing by a man thus sadly afflicted. He was enu- 
merating his virtues to the object of his affections 
and Included amongst them his ability to endure the 
trials of life with stoicism. " There Is no doubt 
of that," said the beloved one, " or you could never 
have borne such a nose for forty years." 

If their reading of the features is to be relied 
upon, one of the Cadis must be an excellent magis- 
trate, a " wise and upright judge," and the wide 
black beard the poet wears Is a sign of high think- 
ing! 

Whilst we were finishing this very good dinner, 
'Ihanidoiilah! '^ the rain clouds had dispersed and the 
flicker and flare of the candles, blown about by the 
breeze, had gradually paled in the silver radiance 
of the tropical moonlight. It had sought out the 
arched entrances of the gallery and crept in, after 
flooding the terrace and the silent deserted roofs of 
the houses beneath us. Early though it was In the 
night, doors were tight shut: good folk were abed 
in the town. It was we, late noisy revellers, who 
broke In upon their slumbers with our voices, who 
set the dogs off In a frenzied chorus, for never do 

'Grace after meat. "Thanks be to God." 



24 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

they " bark so loudly as at the doors of their own 
homes." ^ 

Sleep was Impossible : the night was too superb ! 
All the mud walls and roofs were coated and steeped 
In silver and the little paths and alleys lost in deep- 
est mysterious shadow. Our voices had dropped, 
almost unconsciously, to a whisper and our footfalls 
no longer resounded firmly on the broken flagstones 
of the narrow streets. Now a wraith suddenly 
brushed by and vanished Into a door left ajar for its 
coming; and again, a form, more silent than we with 
its unshod feet, seemed to emanate from a wall, ap- 
peared for a moment, then glided out of sight. 
Presently we came to a triangle where the buildings 
fell apart leaving a space In their midst, brilliantly 
lit up ; so we stood, looking, admiring — watching, 
listening. For what — what was that? Nearer it 
came. The sharp click of a booted heel: the clank 
of a sword; and without further warning a figure In 
full uniform swung round a corner straight into the 
light: stopped dead, hesitated, saluted. "Good- 
night!" "Good-night!" to one for whom there 
would be no Good-morrow. Could we have turned 
his steps? Of what avail? Mektoub rebbi! "It 
was written " ; so he passed on to his destiny and we, 
suddenly weary, faced homewards. 

We had ceased talking now. From time to time 
clouds passed over the face of the moon and it grew 
very dark; so that we had to go slowly along, and 
we trod softly not to arouse the dogs on the roofs or 

^ Arab Proverb. 



THE DIFFA 25 

behind the closed doors. The only sounds on the 
sultry air were those of night birds on the wing. 
It was so close it seemed as if a storm must break. 
At length we' reached the Market Square and caught 
at each other as the stillness was broken by a long, 
eerie, plaintive moan. Oh ! Only a dog baying at 
the moon just emerging again from behind a passing 
cloud. Three times we heard it. Then deep si- 
lence. The town slept. 



CHAPTER III 

EL OUED 

'' There's a bower of roses by Bendemeers stream." 
'' Faire le the, c'est ici une besogne d^homme, et 
d'homme libre." 
" Dans l'Ombre Chaude de l'Islam." 

October 2Sth, 1912. 

WE made an expedition to-day, one of mixed 
joys, by and through the river which 
comes hence from the south, passing the 
Moulin Ferrero, whither we were bound, then find- 
ing its way amidst hills and palm gardens along the 
base of the town in an irregular boundary line, till 
it bends at a sharp angle to lose itself once more in 
a land deserted and mysterious. 

Do not picture a rush, or any depth of water: 
far from it. El Oued has been that always perhaps 
in the past: even in this century has overflowed its 
banks and worked havoc in the gardens ; but to-day, 
it ran a quiet, harmless stream, with scarce a rip- 
ple: a thing of shallows in a bed, sometimes of sand, 
sometimes of loose pebbles, with masses of grey 
granite piled up here and there on either side of it 
and great clumps of defla ^ which, in due season, will 
burst forth in a glory of rose-coloured bloom. 

^ Oleanders. 

3$ 




Kindly lent by Mrs. Matlwi. 



Cave Dwellings near the River 



EL OUED 27 

Too far to walk, and nothing available to help 
shank's mare over the ground but a donkey, with a 
man's saddle at least two sizes too large for it and, 
what is called here a hotirriqiiot. In attendance 
Lisette's boy, the donkey's boy, also its proud 
owner who " would not sell it for one hundred 
francs," a French youth, Gaston, long of body and 
short of leg in a blue blouse and corduroys. Some- 
how — perhaps by courtesy, or by luck, or by choice 
— the bigger of the two donkeys fell to my share ; 
and, always loathing discomfort, I doubtfully sur- 
veyed its back, covered with sacking over which was 
bound a torn red cotton cloth, plus iron stirrups 
roped to each other but attached to nothing else. 
Lisette, on the contrary, quite happy, looking for- 
ward to getting astride, but agreeable to postpone 
mounting till we were well out of sight of the town; 
so we maintained our dignity down the princi- 
pal street and the steep slope which leads to the 
river. 

With the aid of the boys and a handy rock I in- 
elegantly scrambled on to my steed, too much ab- 
sorbed in my own doings to notice Lisette, until I 
saw her turn a somersault in the air and land flat on 
her back on the further side of her donkey, which 
stood stock still, head down to earth, bonnetted with 
the saddle. Not hurt, luckily, and quite undis- 
mayed, she mounted again, and was on the lookout 
now for tricks as we ambled along, sometimes 
through pools, sometimes over boulders, sometimes 
on a long stretch of soft sand. 



28 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

Now and again we fell in with a busy group of 
Jewesses or Arab women, out for a day's work and 
pleasure combined. To go to the river to wash 
means a picnic, thoroughly enjoyed, especially by the 
latter who are so much confined to their dark little 
mud homes. 

Sending on the boys and the donkeys, we halted 
awhile opposite a large party, and sat down to rest 
on a high bank near a declivity of the road, where 
blasting operations had taken place, altering the 
landscape and strewing the path with amethyst dust 
from the rocks, against a wide bed of gold-coloured 
sand. Four slender palm-trees, like pillars, all that 
are left of the grove that once stood there, lent us 
their scant shade from the glare of the noonday; 
and so silent was it that a chameleon crept out, then 
stopped, scenting danger: the while a faint flush of 
pink-violet, the tint of the stone dust, suffused the 
transparent pale grey of its skin. The birds of the 
desert circled above and perched on the bushes be- 
side us. A new friend I have made, Abdallah-ben- 
Sayia (aged twelve), has told me that the Arabs are 
forbidden to kill these brown, sparrow-like little 
creatures, with a dash of mauve in their plumage 
and bright coral-pink bills. Their lives are sacred 
because their progenitor was a M'rabet who was 
such a shocking liar that Allah, in his wrath, turned 
him into a bird, with the gift of foretelling by his 
chirrup the return of an absent friend or relative. 
Heard close to the ear, said Abdallah, with great 



EL OUED 29 

earnestness, this prophecy never fails to come true; 
so evidently the punishment meted out to the menda- 
cious M'rabet has been admirably effective ! 

The first swan was also a changeling in conse- 
quence of a want of veracity; and the monkey a de- 
generate man, a wealthy Arab, who became so lux- 
urious and lazy that he preferred to perform his 
ablutions before prayer in the milk of his numerous 
goats rather than be at the trouble to fetch water — 
or sand, the only other alternative permitted to a 
Mussulman for the purification. 

" Ibrahim ! Ibrahim ! Light up the fire ! " 
startled us out of our musings to look at a sprightly 
young woman clad in blush pink with her loti^a ^ 
falling around her as a calyx encloses a rose in its 
heart. Ibrahim, in his wine-coloured gandoiira^ 
and red fez, heeded her not, too much absorbed in 
some affairs of his own, crouching near the embers 
where stood the big pot for the boiling. It gen- 
erally needs a cuff on the side of the head to enforce 
on small boys the commands of their elders; but, in 
this instance, his mother, skirts drawn up round to 
her knees, bare legged and bare footed, was engaged 
in the danse des laveuses, and we could hear the 
regular swish, swish, swish, as she stamped the dirt 
out of wet linen. 

She and her sisters and cousins had draped all the 
flat masses of stone in their neighbourhood with 

2 Veil. 

3 Sleeveless shirt. 



30 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

melah'af: long pieces of bright-coloured stuff, purple 
with a wide band of green, or orange, or rose divid- 
ing the darker shade horizontally. These are 
wound twice round the body and fastened up on the 
shoulders; or are used by the women to envelop 
themselves, with just one eye peeping out with a shy, 
saucy, or defiant expression. This party seemed to 
have brought out the entire contents of their sou- 
douk,'^ in which they keep all their belongings. On 
one side, as yet unwashed, were red frocks, all in 
one piece with a suggestion of frill at the edge; here 
and there lay an adhaia, or blouse, blown out of the 
pile by the wind, and some sleeveless guenader — 
the shirts of their men; whilst up the bank were 
spread out tiny garments of babies and children — 
for Messaoud, just now stuck on a rock like a lim- 
pet; for Barka and Had'a, half in and half out of 
the water — scarlet flowers of El Oued. 

All these gorgeous hues had for a background 
mud walls, baked rich brown by the sunshine, and 
enclosing hill gardens with dense masses of green 
and waving aigrettes of palm-trees. These again 
were flanked by the mountains that are sometimes 
rose-brown, amethyst, or deep ochre, as the light 
wills it and the fairy clouds overhead veiled with fine 
powdered grains of unseen golden sand, which, 
caught up in mid-air by the four winds of Heaven, 
hang suspended betwixt earth and sky. 

We had covered only one half of our journey, and 
though the sun was just over our heads, we started 

*CoflFers ornamented either with gilt or with painted pictures. 



EL OUED yi 

again, following a path through the mountains. 

We climbed up and down, down and up, chancing 
in one of our ascents upon some Arab homes hol- 
lowed out of the rock, hidden well out of sight be- 
hind bushes, and not a sign of the cave-dwellers 
themselves. Meanwhile the sun grew hotter and 
hotter, and we were just looking forward to our 
luncheon when the boy in charge of the panier, who 
was astride Lisette's donkey, was suddenly shot off. 
Away went everything, and we could hear our two 
bottles of water smashing as they fell. 

Fortunately, we could ask for hospitality at the 
beautiful Mill, which resembles a fragment of some 
Italian hill town wrenched from its original setting 
and placed on the banks of an Algerian river. Its 
present owner was his own architect and the dwell- 
ing house is picturesquely planned to lit the project- 
ing rock on which it has its foundations, resting floor 
by floor on the ledges, with a great hill rising sheer 
upward behind and a wide courtyard sloping down 
to El Oued. We crossed this to a flight of stone 
steps on the left leading to the busy wheel and gran- 
ary: then stepped on to a terrace like a big table, 
the connecting link between the day's work and the 
home life at the other end of the paved passage- 
way. 

Up again, on a narrower ledge, we found an Arab 
family installed. Such a bright, blue-eyed little 
Berber woman, and so excited was she when we were 
all ushered in to disturb her privacy! Hastily 
shrouding herself in her melh'afa she bade her bus- 



32 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

band " mind the house " and deserted him, her baby, 
and her burnous on its frame, to attacli herself to 
our party and take advantage of an unexpected op- 
portunity for an outing. 

Another flight of steps took us to the top of the 
Mill; to its storerooms, full of apples and citrons, 
and lighted by loopholes commanding the courtyard 
in case of an Arab attack — useless now, happily, 
but times were not so peaceful when this picturesque 
dwelling was constructed. 

What a glorious view met our gaze outwards, 
across to row upon row of mountains, pyramids and 
peaks stretching far away in the distance ! Grouped 
on the crest of a rounded hill, immediately opposite, 
w^as an encampment of Bedouins; their tent poles 
covered with long brown bands of camel's hair, 
called feloudji, sloping up from the ground to a 
height of, say, four metres. Great white dogs, with 
deep noisy voices, were posted at intervals of the 
circle, like sentries, which seemed so fearsome that 
a warning message was sent to the nomads that we 
were coming to visit them. 

They had chosen a very good site for their tem- 
porary resting place : near water and with a mill at 
hand to grind their flour. By just so much has the 
woman's burden been lightened since the French 
came to Algeria; with the result, say statistics, that 
her lord is often glad to content himself with, at the 
most, two spouses out of the four allowed by the 
Prophet in an age when the miller and the water- 
barrel were non-existent, and the duties of wife, 



EL OUED 33: 

mother, and drudge too overwhelming for one poor 
human being. 

By the time we reached the encampment the dogs, 
whose " barking does no harm to the clouds," ^ had 
been tied up and we were able to survey the five tents 
In safety. The women, alert and delighted, shew- 
ing all their beautiful white teeth with welcoming 
smiles, came forward to meet us, their frightened 
little ones clinging to them, hiding their faces in 
their mothers' skirts. One indeed burst into tears 
and had to be soothed and camforted with pennies. 
The men, their faces tanned almost to blackness by 
the fierce light of an eternal tropical sun, simply ig- 
nored us. They were lying or lolling about at the 
apertures of their tents, and certainly sustained the 
reputation they bear for extreme laziness when not 
on the march through the desert. Owing to the 
wonderful elasticity of their knee joints, they are 
able to continue day in, day out, at an even pace by 
the side of their heavily laden camels. As they 
have to endure an excess of fatigue on a minimum 
allowance of food; are exposed to the fury of the 
stifling simoon, and to the strange phenomena of 
mirage with Its alluring visions of oases planted with 
palms and watered by cascades, when perhaps most 
weary and athirst, it does seem as if, in the intervals 
of their wanderings, they might be allowed to enjoy 
a rest cure without it being accounted to them for a 
sin! 

We were taken into a tent to inspect the latest ar- 

^ Arab proverb. 



34 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

rival in babies. It was a weird and hideous little 
object, so blue in the face that we asked each other 
afterwards if, for some unknown reason, it had been 
artificially coloured; but we ultimately concluded 
that its unfortunate complexion was due to the pres- 
sure of a bandage round the cranium. There were 
four or five of us crouching under the feloudji,^ 
grouped round the infant, and very soon the stuffi- 
ness became so intolerable that we were forced to 
curtail the audience and were very glad to emerge 
and recover an upright attitude; for the tube frocks 
in which French tailors have dressed us did not per- 
mit of our adopting the monkey-like postures, when 
seated, of our Bedouine friends. 

We strolled down the hillside and crossed the 
river again by stepping-stones leading into the mill 
garden which stretches, long and narrow, at the base 
of the mountains, between parallel lines of tall pop- 
lars. Here grew every kind of vegetable: onions, 
pumpkins, carrots, turnips, potatoes. Dividing the 
beds into sections were small groves of fruit trees : 
some, their boughs heavily laden with spherical balls 
turning slowly from green to deep orange : others, 
a mass of leaves only, bereft some weeks since of 
their burden of " fruitage forbidden, The golden 
pomegranate of Eden." 

Beyond this, an enclosure of old-fashioned flow- 
ers : " those with a long past behind them, linked to 
humanity by many a gracious act fraught with kindly 
consolation." Roses grew there, sweet williams, 

^ Tent covering. 



EL OUED 3^ 

sunflowers; and, In a sheltered nook, a few fragrant 
violets which soft airs had lured Into blossom be- 
lieving this exquisite day of October born of the 
springtime. It was a sight to awaken nostalgia : an 
irrepressible longing for the cottage gardens of 
home in the heart of an exile; quickly followed and 
tempered by sad recollections of the cold grey skies 
and rain beaten blossoms of a preceding June. 

Here too, despite this glorious sunshine and seem- 
ing tranquillity, nature is by no means always In a 
beneficent mood. Some five years ago El Oued, 
lashed into fury by the torrential rain and the terri- 
ble wind from the desert, rose In great flood; so the 
miller's wife told us, with lips that trembled at the 
memory of the surging waters which had Invaded 
her home. 

Our hostess gave us each a sweet-scented souvenir 
In farewell, and we sought our retainers, only to find 
that they had all gone off in pursuit of Lisette's lit- 
tle devil who, not properly tethered, was enjoying 
a scamper over the hillside. 

However, the three breathless boys soon clattered 
into the courtyard, having caught the offender; and 
we mounted again starting homewards just as the 
sun began to decline so that the rocks threw great 
purple patches of shadow over the water, such as 
Corot once painted in masterly fashion, picturing 
the return of the Prodigal Son. 

Presently the wind brought to our ears faintly 
over the hill to the river bed the chimes of the Fort 
clock striking the hour, and finding ourselves once 



36 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

more near the town we dismounted and let the boys 
take our places. For an Arab to have a steed of 
any sort raises him immeasurably above the heads of 
his fellows, and Abdurahman settled himself on my 
discarded donkey prepared to Impress his friends by 
a state entry, when he was suddenly propelled into 
a ditch and the hitherto docile bourrlquot made a 
bolt for its stable! • 

What price donkeys ? Going two a penny ! No 
bids. 

We had come now to a bend, a crooked elbow, 
where the bank of the river juts out and were within 
sight of a charming pavilion, all white, built in the 
form of a Kouba, set high up in a corner. Its sugar 
cone top was half hidden by the waving, caressing 
plumes of the palm trees which spread their shade 
over a little green balcony: an Ideal refuge for poets 
and dreamers. 

Seated there, reading, was an imposing familiar 
figure in a long coat of fine brown cloth, the em- 
broidered vest and cuffs with their close rows of but- 
tons shewing through a sleeveless gandoiira of silk 
— both garments the shade of the ripening dates 
which encircled and crowned the stems of the palm 
trees. His full Turkish trousers were thrust into 
high riding boots and he wore the M'Zabite turban 
kept in place by folds of gold coloured silk. He 
rose when he saw us and at once hastened out of his 
garden to suggest tea — a I'Arabe — an offer we 
gladly accepted, tired and thirsty after our ride. 



EL OUED 37 

We followed him up a side path by a wall of loose 
stones, piled one on top of another, to a high door, 
which stood open, framing a vista of green grass 
plots and prickly pears grouped closely in masses, 
their pale green flat leaves growing off one another. 
To the right were wide shallow steps leading up a 
bank under a framework of twigs, bare now, but in 
the early tropical summer covered with leaves and 
hung with clusters of grapes green and purple. 

This vinery led to the kouha; "^ a deliciously cool 
little chamber with walls all white from top to cen- 
tre, then lined to their base with green tiles. A 
stone dokana covered by a large straw mat, filled up 
a third of the space ; and a niche, with a blessing in- 
scribed over It, was cut Into the wall to hold books 
by the poets of Araby. 

We sat chatting about the foreigners who, rarely 
enough, yet occasionally, spend a few months in this 
place for their health, their art, or their happiness : 
a rather sore subject at present, for one has just 
gone away, loudly denouncing the Arabs as " all 
thieves and liars." Then, to make matters worse, a 
lady from " t'other side the Atlantic," with an in- 
satiable thirst for knowledge and not much discre- 
tion, has lately called on his wife, and promptly 
enquired " how many he had? " " Surely not con- 
tent with one only ! " 

There Is nothing an Arab resents more strongly 
than this impertinent curiosity. To strangers, he re- 
frains, if possible, from giving his name ; mentioning 

"^ A little summer house built like a saint's mausoleum. 



38 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

his business; or his object in taking a journey. Any 
discussion of his home Hfe is intolerable to him : even 
amongst his intimates its privacy is held well nigh 
sacred. If he be poor, his dwelling, for choice, will 
be hidden like those we came upon earlier in the day 
on the hillside: if he be rich, he sets it within some 
walled garden, away from sight or sound of the 
world of mankind; or surrounded by a stone en- 
closure, with apertures for air, but no windows. 
His wife is never mentioned. To speak of her; en- 
quire directly for her, or her health, is an unpardon- 
able social sin; but the language is amply furnished 
with suitably vague expressions to meet the occasion 
if need be. " How is everyone at home? " " Are 
you all well?" "Anyone ill at your house?" 
would all be safe questions and quite in good taste. 
To say baldly to an Arab " Who is your mother? " 
would simply make him gasp ; but if the enquiry were 
altered to "Who are your maternal uncles?" he 
would comprehend and reply to it ! ! 

Fortunately the arrival of tea, carried in on a 
brass tray by one of the gardeners, turned the talk 
into other and happier channels. It looked so re- 
freshing as our host poured it out of a slender 
necked cafetiere into stemmed cups of blue fluted 
glass: served cold, this sunshiny afternoon, of course 
without milk or sugar, but pervaded by the faint 
flavour and scent of the fragrant herbs with which it 
is mixed. 

We sat in a row on the dokana; Lisette and I 
drinking endless cups of tea and all discussing forth- 



EL OUED 39 

coming events, for great changes are pending at the 
close of the year. In this peaceful community of 
peasant shepherds and gardeners, where strife and 
sedition are not, there is no longer need for a high 
handed rule, a Commandant, officers, soldiers : 
" All are going, Thank God! " says the Arab under 
his breath! A civil administration, with a right of 
appeal, will replace the military jurisdiction : but we, 
who are onlookers merely, will miss, in this radiant 
light, the gleam of scarlet and gold; the blue, red 
and yellow of the French tirailleur; the swarthy 
Zouave in his braided jacket and full pantaloons; 
and mostly, of course, the picturesque Spahis and the 
mounted Cavaliers du Bureau Arabe. From my 
window, times out of number, I have watched them 
ride by: singly, in pairs, sometimes a gay company. 
A Spahi in burnous of brick red, his white hdik con- 
fined by coils of deepest brown camel's hair: the 
Cavaliers their great cloaks of grey blue, with a thin 
line and facing of yellow or strawberry pink, drawn 
up at the sides reveahng big rose coloured riding 
boots. They and their chargers are one as they lean 
back in their high Arab saddles of dark crimson or 
golden brown leather, where they sleep during the 
toilsome night marches over the sands of the desert; 
their animals trained to a pace between a walk and 
a trot, which makes least demand on the horse and 
its rider. 

My mind was full of these pictures as the others 
talked on of the happier days that are coming, 
whilst the shade of the palm trees lengthened and 



40 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

wafted along by the breeze from the river came 
smoke from the town of innumerable fires lit up at 
evening. 

We all left the little Pavilion and strolled once 
more through the garden to the bank, where our 
host, priding himself on being very chic and Parisian, 
kissed our hands as we parted. This is, of course, 
a great innovation in customs reserved only for rou- 
7nya: ^ but with an Arab, salutations, of which there 
are many varieties, are almost invariably a matter 
of elaborate courtesy. Salamoiine dle'ikoume! says 
one strictly orthodox follower of Islam to another 
"Peace be unto you!" — "And with you Peace," 
Oua Ale'ikoiime Esselema is the response as hands 
touch and each carries his own to his lips, the while 
graciously bending his head. In the street I have 
sometimes seen a young man, as he passed a mou 
'ahkir,^ with a reverential gesture that is very pic- 
turesque and charming, literally kiss the hem of his 
garment: or two friends closely embrace, putting 
their hands on each other's shoulders. 

If two strangers meet in a lonely place, it is the 
least proud who takes the initiative, saying : " Peace 
be with you ! " Should he chance to be a sectarian, 
a Jew, or a Christian, the curt rejoinder " To you ! " 
will not be a surprise : but to be entirely ignored will 
put him on his guard, for, obviously, the other trav- 
eller is ill-disposed towards him. 

" Bonjour Modom!" often greets my ears, 

^ Strangers : Christians. 

^ A man much respected, leading a holy life. 




Kind.'s lent by Mrs. Mathczi'; 



The River 



EL OUED 41 

kindly spoken by the men who cross my path dur- 
ing my solitary walks abroad. The women nod and 
smile and stop to look at my clothes with as much 
curiosity as I take note of theirs and of their strange 
clumsy brooches and barbaric ear-rings; of their 
chained pendants hanging on either side their faces 
over their plaits of hair from headdress to shoulder. 
The formula for good-bye is either Roiih 'bel dfia 
or Emshi hesselema, spoken by the host to his guest, 
and as the latter crosses the threshold he responds 
by way of farewell, Abka Ma kheir. 



CHAPTER IV 

THE GREAT FEASTS 

"And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, 
and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket 
by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, 
and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead 
of his son." Genesis xxii, 13. 

"And the ark rested . . . upon the mountains 
of Ararat." Genesis viii, 4. 

"Nothing, nothing can preserve from death: 
neither an a?nulet fastened to the head, nor a frag- 
ment of green pottery suspended round the neck." 

Arab Saying. 

November ig th, 19 12. 

IN the more fitful sunlight and tenderer radiance 
of a winter sky, all the little girl grubs, able to 
beg enough pennies during the past week, have 
been suddenly transformed Into brilliant butterflies. 
Excepting a woman's head-dress, to which they are 
promoted at marriage, and not then If still very 
young, the clothing of the tiny mites Is only a smaller 
edition of their mothers' ; generally with allowance 
for growth, so that hems sweep the ground with an 
amusing suggestlveness of " dressing up." 

Of course girl babies are very unwelcome when 

43 



THE GREAT FEASTS 43 

they arrive In this world, but at least they are no 
longer burled alive, or abandoned to die in the des- 
ert, as was the case in pre-Islamic times, before Zaid, 
son of Amr, forerunner of the Prophet, went preach- 
ing through Arab villages that the murder of chil- 
dren is a sin. Was it the spirit of Laylah, his grand- 
mother, which spoke within him? She, says tradi- 
tion, barely escaped the doom pronounced by an irate 
father, disappointed that a son had not been born to 
him. " Kill the child! " he had flung angrily at the 
unhappy mother, who, fearing to question a decision 
she was too maternal to obey, dared evade it by giv- 
ing her baby Into the care of a faithful slave to 
hide for her. That very night her lord dreamed he 
heard voices which prophesied, saying : — " Thy 
daughter shall be the mother of great men : so It is 
written ! " Awakening In a state of agitation, he 
demanded, "Where is my daughter?" — "I have 
killed her in compliance with your wish," was the 
meek reply. "Impossible! She cannot be dead: 
see to it that she Is carefully tended that her destiny 
may be fulfilled." " Well ! well ! " said the mother, 
taking heart of grace, " perhaps after all she Is 
alive I " After Zaid came the Prophet with his ad- 
monition: " Thou shalt not kill thy children! " and 
his rebuke to a neglectful father who boasted that 
though he had many little girls, he had never ca- 
ressed one of them. "Unhappy wretch!" cried 
Mahomet, " God must have crushed all kindness out 
of your heart: you do not know the sweetest joy ever 
experienced by man ! " 



44 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

Playthings therefore for the time, all too short, of 
their childhood, learning nothing, whilst their little 
Jewish neighbours go daily to school, they are dread- 
fully spoiled and undisciplined. It can only be the 
fittest physically who survive, clad as they are in 
their muslin rags, whatever the weather; whilst their 
more valued brothers, each and all, are cosily en- 
shrouded in a stout burnous which is as a very shell 
to the little snail inside. Lisette's models — of 
naughtiness — give her Infinite trouble : they wrig- 
gle and squirm, demand pennies and sweets, and, 
if reproved, yell with might and main, or make a 
wild dash for the door. Cheery, bright little crea- 
tures withal, laughing and jesting as they pose, 
whilst Fatimah, the eldest and centre of the group, 
tells stories : or divines, drawing mystic circles on the 
sanded floor, and tossing the yellow grains in her 
palm, to see how they fall for good or ill luck of 
each. To-day and all the past week Lisette's Arab 
house knows them not, and LIsette herself is taking 
an enforced holiday. They have joined the swarm 
which is flitting about the town, very gorgeous in 
bran new mendilat,^ and frocks of purple and green; 
or red and rose; or perhaps scarlet patterned with 
yellow and headgear of black striped with a border 
of many bright tints. Every hue of the rainbow has 
been requisitioned, lightly softened by transparencies 
of figured white muslin floating from brown neck to 
browner heel, shaped like the cope of a Catholic 
priest and brooched under the chin with a large gold 

1 Coloured scarves for the head. 



THE GREAT FEASTS 45 

ornament set with a stone. Hair gleams glossy and 
black on either side each childish face : plaits doubled 
under covering the ears, then lost in the folds of 
mendilat: even rouge, saffron tinted, sweet smelling,, 
has not been forgotten ! From the vantage ground 
of my balcony I can watch them run hither and 
thither all over the Square begging for pence from 
the male passerby and the well-to-do Arab, like his 
prototype of the West, Is rarely proof against the 
allurements of these miniature women, so gaily ap- 
parelled. 

There came along presently one, already made 
bankrupt, showing his silver sewn purse of gazelle 
skin, inside and out, shaking its emptiness at them, 
as Sadi'ya and Hafsa and Zarka clung to his humous 
with pleading, lustrous, koh'eul rimmed eyes, tiny 
henneh stained hands outstretched for souarda.^ 

Though sorely tempted to throw down consola- 
tion, I dared not, well knowing that never, never 
should I regain my present peace and immunity, won 
by sour looks, forbidding airs and obdurate pleas of 
poverty. Later, however, during my afternoon 
stroll on the outskirts, I encountered a couple of 
bright little creatures flitting towards me, and for 
long, till my store of pennies and ha'pence was com- 
pletely exhausted, I amused myself rolling coins 
down that silent deserted side street for the pleasure 
of seeing them chased with a rush, a sudden flutter 
of wings white and scarlet and a breathless excite- 
ment. 

2 Sous. 



46 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

Next day. 

The Fort guns thundered a salute this morning 
early to usher in Ai'd-el-Kebir, one of the three Great 
Festivals recognised by the orthodox. It seems so 
especially a propos in this little community largely 
composed of shepherds, to commemorate Abraham's 
sacrifice of the ram Instead of his son, whom the 
Arabs like to call Ishmael, their progenitor. Instead 
of Isaac as we have the story. Ancient rites there 
are, still followed In a somewhat half blind fashion. 
Poor and woe begone Indeed Is he who cannot, on 
this one occasion at least, appear before his little 
world In spotless raiment, purified for the sacri- 
fice of blood which to-day will bring the followers of 
Islam into close relationship with the Great Spirit 
of the Universe. 

Many sheep, poor bleating victims, have been 
" consecrated to God " in accordance with the usual 
custom; bought by the rich and shared with their 
poorer neighbours. In every home the meal Is 
timed to take place as soon as possible after the sac- 
rifice: the liver, which Is believed to contain more of 
the divine essence than any other portion, Is eaten 
first and a shoulder blade kept and hung up for luck, 
and for divination. 

It may be said that the slaughter of any animal 
for food Is a matter of ritual with the Arab as, turn- 
ing towards Mecca, he pronounces the bism tllah ^ 
before cutting Its throat. He thus daily renews the 
link between himself and the Creator by the restora- 

3 To ask a blessing. 



(THE GREAT FEASTS 47 

tion of his own physical powers and by liberating 
all the vital force, the baraka, contained in the 
breath and warm blood of the creature. In the case 
of a hen it should be swung seven times round the 
head and made to touch the back and chest to fur- 
ther ensure the transmission of the divine essence 
into his own person. Here, however, so debased 
has the rite become, so entirely lost is its esoteric 
meaning that, by a far more practical and mundane 
association of ideas, the victim is swung seven times 
over the embers of the fire where presently it will 
be cooked. When engaged in painting Nakhla's 
portrait one day, Lisette actually witnessed this ex- 
traordinary operation carried out on a wretched 
fowl. Intended for the evening meal, and already 
half dead from fright and rough handling. No 
amount of questions could elicit any reason for the 
needless cruelty, save that it was "for luck"; but 
in any case whatever virtues the Arab possesses, that 
of compassion cannot be counted as one of them. 

December iSth, 19 12. 
Within a month of A'id-el-Kebir, another festival 
is upon us, heralded the last few days not by gay and 
brilliant butterflies, but by a nightly plague of snails 
and caterpillars whose turn it is to search, when 
school Is over, for copper coins. It seems fitting 
enough that It should be so, for Achourd is a survival 
of an ancient agrarian rite to welcome the god of 
spring, who is putting life into the seeds of the earth 
that they may germinate and, in due time, bring 



48 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

forth their fruits for the nourishment of all these 
little brown creatures, who ask for pennies where- 
with to celebrate his nativity. 

The year is dead! Hail to the New Year ! The 
orthodox believer will deny this and tell you he is 
commemorating Adam's birthday, or his repentance : 
or, more often, the safety of Noah when the waters 
had subsided: but in reality, there Is another and 
deeper reason than all, or any one of these, which 
had so strong a hold on the people that Mahomet 
when he came, wise man, only sought to engraft 
upon it some idea In accordance with his own more 
evolved and crystallised system. 

It is recommended (not enjoined) to the believer 
that he should fast at Achoura, at least so I am told, 
but whatever may happen elsewhere. In the Place of 
Happiness he does no such thing. So much bleating 
has there been, and such numbers of sheep, the last 
few days, in the market place, that, on the contrary, 
I think we all feast. Not to would surely be an un- 
wise plan, for the whole of the ensuing twelve 
months will be governed by the actions of this day. 

" Please God," says the Arab devoutly, " I will 
keep Achoura next year as I am keeping It this ! " 
and he bathes, that he may be Immune from Illness : 
being vain, puts kolieiil under his eyes: stains his 
hands with hennch like the women, declaring himself 
purified thereby, though the orthodox look askant 
at such practices and approve them not. 

Some of the women also bring down condemna- 
tion on their heads by visiting the tombs of their 



THE GREAT FEASTS 49 

dead at Achoura; and It certainly seems a pity they 
should elect to sadden a day of otherwise universal 
rejoicing by tears which can be shed, without com- 
ment, any Friday during the year when their lords 
are at prayer. Every week, on the Mussulman Sab- 
bath, at mid day, the roads leading to the cemeteries 
on the outskirts beyond the river are alive with vivid 
patches of colour: moving in masses at first, then di- 
viding up as each woman seeks a mound, known to 
her by an amulet she has placed there ; or a few shells 
threaded together and slung round the triangular 
headstone, marking some nameless grave where par- 
ent, or husband, or child has been laid to rest facing 
towards the sacred city of pilgrimage and prayer. 

" Many, many Arabs die," Abdallah has told me, 
sadly shaking his head, " because they are not prop- 
erly cared for "; and at the approach to the town, 
more graveyards bear witness to the truth of this 
testimony. In the midst of one, at the base of the 
hill, is a saint's mausoleum. Its walls are decorated 
with Arabic lettering written around in the form of 
a wheel; and its square roof has an upright project- 
ing cornice, out of which rises a sugar loaf top, which 
first greets the eye of the stranger on his arrival. 

Further up the slope, the M'Zabite, from whom 
other Mussulmen hold entirely aloof, buries his dead. 
He is unorthodox; a trader and shopkeeper: the 
" Jew of the Desert "; whom the more distinguished 
followers of the Prophet estimate as " only one-fifth 
of a person "; but he thrives by his Industry and the 
mounds beneath which lie his kinsmen are covered 



50 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

by slabs, or have even more elaborate tombstones. 

It is curious to note the common flints which have 
been carefully laid on some of the graves: some- 
times as many as seven: not in regular order, but 
singly, and probably each at a different time, or by a 
different person, as an act of homage and veneration 
to the dead. 

Was it this idea also which prompted the gift of 
a small stoneware jug, green and yellow, firmly ce- 
mented on one of the principal headstones; or was 
it placed there for luck? Did the donor of this or- 
nament — so strange to our eyes, so seemingly child- 
ish and futile — hope that the green pottery would 
stand the loved one in good stead when rendering 
an account of his past life to the two angels who visit 
the tombs ? Everything perishes with a Mussulman 
at his death, save the virtuous child he has begotten 
to praise Allah; the alms he has bestowed on the 
poor: the services he has rendered to his fellow men. 
All these are duly credited to his earthly account; 
and on the other side is written the list, long or short 
as may be, of his sins, neghgences and ignorances: 
all matters wherein he may have offended. 

The two angels, who have questioned him as to his 
faith and his works, sum up ; and if the balance be on 
the wrong side, he is carried off on their wings to 
the bridge, which is but of an hair's breadth and 
sharp as the edge of a razor: where no wicked man 
can stand, nor can he ever pass over, so he falls 
headlong into the yawning abyss beneath him; into 
the eternal fires of Hell. 



THE GREAT FEASTS 51 

If, however, our dead Mussulman has led a godly, 
virtuous life, he spans the sirath in an instant of 
time: and to ease the bitterness of death eats of the 
liver of the Sacred Bull, on whose horns rests this 
little world of ours. Then, robed in green silk; fed 
on choicest viands and quaffing rhiqi * and mekh- 
toume,'^ he dwells forever with houris in a Paradise 
evolved from the imaginations of a people as yet 
unable to attain to a higher ideal of a future life. 

Well then as orthodoxy has decided that the i8th 
of December is not New Year's Day, we look for- 
ward — of whatever creed we may be — to another 
cordial exchange of greetings and good wishes in 
the early days of January according to the dictates, 
more or less, of the Julian Calendar which the Arabs 
use for all practical purposes. 

Instead, however, of again putting on their beau- 
tiful new clothes and fine linen in honour of the third 
great Festival; the men, for the first few days of 
Ennai'r, will observe the rites of mourning: will don 
their oldest and shabbiest: abstain from changing 
their garments, from bathing, from cutting their 
hair, or their nails. 

Inasmuch as Achoura has been the occasion for the 
renewal and rehabilitation, so to speak, of the man: 
at Ennai'r, it is the home that must be cleaned, swept 
and newly garnished. Outside the tents on the hill- 
side near the brick kilns, the upstanding boughs and 
branches planted there to give shelter from rain, 

* Exquisite wines. 



52 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

wind and prying eyes, will be replaced with fresh 
ones full of young sap, of the vigorous forces of all 
the vegetation upspringing since the birth of the new 
god and capable of transmission to man and beast. 

Ennair is, as a matter of fact, the annual " spring 
clean " of the housewife, and whatever betides is an 
augury for the luck of her home for twelve months 
to come. It behoves her, therefore, to wash all the 
clothes: throw away everything that is worn out, 
even to the beams from which her utensils have been 
suspended: to send her children to find three new 
stones for the hearth: to make a holocaust of her 
cooking pots and pans, her mortar, her wooden 
dishes and platter and replace them with new ones. 
Couscouss cooked by steam is forbidden on the first 
day of Ennair, so even if she cannot afford to dis- 
pense with her old keskds, it must at least lie idle 
and unused for twenty- four hours; and her unfin- 
ished humous come off its frame and be carried to 
the other side of the mountain and back, before she 
can venture to start work on It again. 

A most exhausting day this, of practical and seem- 
ingly unpractical necessities for the Arab woman, 
and more than that : of many, many things to remem- 
ber and observations to make of prognostics for a 
year's good luck or 111. She must hearken to the 
cries of the mules and donkeys : what do they por- 
tend for the future? "When the ass brays, seek 
refuge In God from the artifices of Satan, who may 
be stoned," says a well-known proverb, recalling 
that memorable occasion when Abraham was thus 



THE GREAT FEASTS 53 

able to repulse the Evil One as he endeavoured to 
hinder the proposed sacrifice of his son, Ishmael, to 
God. 

The flight of the birds must be watched, especially 
the crows and the bats, birds of ill augur; and, she 
must take note, as good wife and mother, if the 
beans swell properly In the water when the cher- 
chem ^ Is cooking and thereby relieve her anxieties 
lest her household lack food during the coming 
twelve months. For her neighbours' sake, too, as 
well as her own and that of her kin, she will place 
on the house top at evening a small bowl of meal, or 
one of salt, and a fleece of white wool that, in the 
night the dew may work its will on them and " In- 
shallah!"^ leave hopeful signs, when morning 
dawns, of growing rains in the winter and spring 
that win bring forth a plentiful harvest. 

A busy day indeed; and for the witch doctor some 
strenuous hours to follow, for every spell that she 
weaves under the moon; every remedy she distils 
with her simples and herbs by the light of the stars; 
every powder she burns with her weird incantations ; 
every formula she mutters and mumbles is rendered 
infallible by the magic enchantment of the first night 
of Ennai'r. 

^ Dish of beans. 
^ Please God. 



CHAPTER V 

A " NUMERO " 

"A Mussuhnan marriage is one of purchase: the 
husband must pay for his bride. A wedding can 
no more take place without a sum of money chang- 
ing hands than can any other sale." Perron. 

November, 19 12. 

AFTER an immense show of coyness; much 
hesitation and postponement from day to 
day; all sorts of excuses, difficult to combat 
on account of their vagueness; Nakhla has at length 
yielded to Lisette's solicitations to paint her portrait. 
Not, however, in the " studio," that would be ask- 
ing too much: it is only in the sanctuary of her moth- 
er's hut that she can consent to pose, for at this par- 
ticular juncture she must be circumspect In her com- 
ings and goings. Nakhla, aged fifteen, has divorced 
her first husband and is most desirous to pick another 
packet out of the matrimonial dip. 

Five years ago, when the village beauty was a lit- 
tle girl of ten and there was not enough bread in the 
home to fill all the hungry mouths, the wife of the 
French doctor offered to take the pretty child as 
maid; for servants hardly exist at all in the Place 
of Happiness and Nakhla was both handy and at- 
tractive. 

54 




Nakhla 



A " NUMERO " 55 

When the doctor was moved on elsewhere, the lit- 
tle Arab girl went to Lisette for a time; learned 
many more things in life and, amongst others, to 
speak French. Moreover she developed character 
and a personality, so that one of the artists here went 
so far as to speak of her as a " numero " ; that is to 
say, a person to be reckoned with. Naturally, being 
intelligent and quick, existence took on another as- 
pect for the child in her wholly different surround- 
ings, which, from a purely ideal point of view makes, 
no doubt, for spiritual progress; but, as we all know, 
with such new graft, life must immediately become 
more complicated and difficult. 

It was not surprising, therefore, that when Aly- 
ben-Say'ia bought Nakhla last year for 130 francs 
(including the marriage fee of six francs) and took 
her, as wife, to live with his mother and pretty sis- 
ter Hafsa, there was trouble from the very outset in 
this joint menage, and the bride was not as amenable 
as other Arab wives, who have the reputation of 
making no undue fuss about arrangements which do 
not please them. Aly, moreover, Is a worthless 
scamp : vain, like all Arabs, and vain to excess ; idle 
too, living as best he may on his mother's portion of 
old Mohamed-ben-Sayia's lessened fortune, which 
must be shared with the other widow and her young 
son, Abdallah, who have always enjoyed a home of 
their own in another quarter of the town. 

Within a year of the marriage, Nakhla took her 
husband before the Caid, stated her grounds of com- 
plaint and repaying some portion of the purchase 



56 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

money, she divorced Aly with every evidence of con- 
tempt, and went back to live with her mother. 

This was the position of affairs when we arrived 
In September; and already it was evident that the 
additional strain on the funds of the poor little home 
was rather more than it could bear, and that, allow- 
ing for the three, months which must elapse before 
she could remarry, Nakhla must make all haste to 
try and find another husband; one, also with money 
enough to pay the debt of sixty francs still due to 
Aly. 

But for her extreme poverty, I doubt if she would 
have been cajoled into sitting for LIsette, for what 
possible husband would wish his wife's portrait to be 
in the hands of a stranger, albeit a woman, or per- 
haps sold for money? A truly odious idea indeed 
and the artist and his craft are always eyed with sus- 
picion and dislike. 

The painting of the portrait, therefore, progresses 
slowly and is hedged about with many precautions 
and much secrecy. Abdurahman carries Lisette's 
easel and brushes to and fro under cover of dark- 
ness, though I should imagine his being accessory to 
the facts is in itself a sufficient guarantee for the 
whole town to be Informed of the proceedings. 
However, outwardly at least, the conventions are 
being observed and that Is more than half the battle 
in other places besides this. 

Amongst prospective suitors there is a certain 
cousin, who, by virtue of his relationship, visits at 



A "NUMERO" 57 

the house, and I have met him there more than once 
and though, with my imperfect knowledge of Arabs, 
I can hardly sit In judgment on him, it has occurred 
to me that he would be a doubtful prize. However, 
Nakhla has a large piece of lead which she puts into 
a pot of boiling water regularly every morning (ex- 
cept Fridays) ^ to see what form it will take and for 
some time the daily forecast has been propitious for 
this particular young man. Negotiations are still 
pending, but a recent wedding has changed the com- 
plexion of affairs and. Incidentally, the contortions 
of the molten lead which assist its owner to arrive 
at her decisions. 

Lisette and I were Invited to the ceremonies of 
last Wednesday and wended our way to the bride's 
home early one afternoon to find every alley, passage 
and path leading up to it, choked with dirty human- 
ity and the abode Itself filled to suffocation. In the 
first apartment we saw a melancholy-looking girl 
seated on cloths with her back to the wall, supported 
on either side by a sister and hemmed In by a semi- 
circle of Intimates who were squatting around her. 
To look miserable, however, is merely a matter of 
good form and there Is no need to jump to the con- 
clusion that the bride was genuinely unhappy. Her 
mother, who received in the adjoining apartment, 
was very smiling Indeed and we heard that a large 
sum had been paid for the uninteresting little person 
we had just seen. It was only next day, however, 

iThe Mussulman Sunday. ' 



58 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

that we fully realised the wealth of the bridegroom 
as exhibited at the public festivities to which he 
treated the town. 

Guided by the beating of the tomtoms we arrived 
at the large triangular space which we had learned 
to know and admire by moonlight. Now it was 
bathed in a golden glow and crowded: but near its 
apex a slight elevation of mud banked up against the 
houses enabled us to look over the heads of the other 
spectators. The fantasia ^ was in full swing and the 
principal flute player was seated, that his head might 
be decorated with bank notes folded lengthwise; and 
large five franc pieces were ranged round his tur- 
ban, kept in place by a deep fold of the linen and 
camel's hair cords. Facing us, at right angles, was 
a cafe where the men guests sat drinking and, beneath 
a red awning, a brilliant, many hued rainbow of 
women awaited the dance. Shrouded figures, be- 
tween whom and themselves a great gulf had been 
fixed: a long line of forms enveloped in dingy, un- 
certain white tones relieved by one deep note of pur- 
ple, looked down from the opposite roofs with aris- 
tocratic aloofness. 

The master of ceremonies chose out three of the 
dancers, who surrounded the musician and trans- 
ferred all the money and notes from his head to their 
own, so that at first I thought this was a novel way 
of remunerating them for their services. However, 
it only needed five minutes to undeceive me, for after 
they returned to their places the sum was carefully 

2 Fete. 



A " NUMERO " 59 

collected, counted, added to, and the whole proceed- 
ings repeated, again and again, till not one of us 
could possibly have any doubt that this Arab bride- 
groom was a multi-millionaire ! 

Then the musicians changed their tune for the 
dancing girls and to my surprise, from the outer edge 
of the rainbow, I saw Nakhla advance towards the 
cleared space in the centre. Certain ominous proph- 
ecies that had been made regarding her flashed into 
my mind. Still, unlike the rest, she was veiled with 
a green transparency, spangled with silver, so we 
must hope that, even if she be skating on thin ice, 
the conventions have again been sufficiently observed. 

She looked very handsome in purple, with a brave 
show of jewels — all borrowed — and the touches 
of rose red about her waist, combined with the apple 
green of her louga, are the colours said to awaken 
desire. Be that as it may, I noticed a sergeant of 
Zouaves lean forward to watch her and deliberately 
point her out to a comrade seated beside him. This 
Aly saw also, present of course with the rest of the 
world, and obviously wrathful and disturbed ; but he 
has lost his rights and it is rumoured, moreover, that 
he too is in search of another spouse. 

As might be expected, the painting of the portrait 
has been quite in abeyance and though Lisette has 
resumed her labours again, Nakhla is a less satisfac- 
tory model than ever. Her thoughts are engrossed 
by the sergeant, who is stationed at Algiers and is 
making overtures to take her back with him. An 
atmosphere of suppressed excitement prevails in the 



6o A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

little hut : friends constantly arrive and one old man, 
to bring luck to the wooing, made the expectant bride 
take off her mendil and spat on her head. This is 
one of the most usual methods of transmitting the 
sacred force from one individual to another and It 
has been said of a certain cherif ^ that, when on a 
tour of inspection a child was taken up to him, he 
would spit into its mouth, saying: *' Teqra, in chdh 
Allah," that is: " You will become learned, please 
God!" 

As LIsette's habihka,^ I also am permitted to pay 
a visit now and again and in the afternoon am re- 
galed with tea and scone, like a big muffin (only in- 
finitely nicer and more digestible) baked over the 
embers. Afterwards, seated on Nakhla's sou- 
douk^ I watch the women weaving the humous; or 
a couple of boy cousins playing at draughts; or, I 
take a hand myself at cards. This is amusing and 
the pack, of Spanish origin, is primitive and quaint. 
The great object of our favourite game consists in 
pairing the cards by their numbers. Four cards are 
dealt face upwards in the centre and three to each 
player who, In turn, tries to match one in his hand 
with any of those on the board and make a trick; 
for, whoever has most cards when the pack Is ex- 
hausted Is the winner. 

For variety, we play another game, still simpler 
and more dependent, if possible, upon luck. Three 
cards are dealt to each player and, should fortune 

3 Nobleman. 

4 Friend. 
• Coffer. 



A ''NUMERO'* 6i 

favour him with one or two more which together 
make up the number seven, he wins. The next win- 
ning number is eight, then nine, or even a pair of 
the first cards of any suit, plus two. 

Being under the happy impression that I had 
grasped these details very quickly, it was humiliating 
to be told that there is yet another game called besqa, 
which is much too difficult for me to learn. True, I 
have sometimes forgotten to deal round to my right, 
and also, to take the cards from the bottom of the 
pack upwards, after the custom of so many years 
which has made contrariwise practically automatic. 
This they may consider sufficient evidence of a feeble 
intelligence, for nothing will shake the cousins' reso- 
lution not even to attempt to teach me : and I secretly 
begin to wonder (and thereby my hurt vanity is 
soothed) if they know how to play it themselves ! 
So I have ceased to press the point, especially as 
Nakhla is getting irritable and nervy, and this morn- 
ing she burst into tears. Lisette is relieved that her 
handsome, if somewhat coarse features, are trans- 
ferred now to the canvas and, so striking is the like- 
ness of the wilful and imperious beauty that the chil- 
dren are all perfectly crazy to kiss the picture and 
have been allowed to do so, one after another, in a 
little procession. 

The purple mendil which covers her head accentu- 
ates her rich colouring and enhances the dark bril- 
liance of her beautiful eyes. There is no trace of 
the unhappiness, of the distress and agitation the 
poor model now exhibits, for the sergeant seems to 



62 A WOMAN IX THE SAH.\RA 

be withdrawing his pretensions : has, as a matter of 
fact, already returned to Algiers, alarmed at the 
large debt still owing to Aly, which must be paid 
before Nakhla can be free. 

The molten lead is failing to do its dut}" by way 
of hopeful prophecy in the mornings and now the 
cards are being requisitioned to see what the future 
holds in store. For this purpose Nakhla and I have 
an appointment with a witch wife; my companion 
requesting also some love charms and I, ostensibly, 
in search of amulets to give me back the health and 
strength which has already been restored to me by 
the magic of the sun and the sand. 



CHAPTER VI 

THE SORCERESS 

" She is here, as everywhere, the sibyl, the sor- 
ceress, the soothsayer." Perron. 

" What is not written, is unobtainable. From 
what is written, none can escape." 

Arab Chant. 

November 1,0th, 1912. 

IT was nearly six o'clock on a dark evening when, 
calling out " Roumya," ^ I knocked at Nakhla's 
squalid home and found her anxiously awaiting 
me, so rolled up in her melh'afa that only half one 
eye was visible. 

Together we groped our way along a little lane 
to a high palm tree door, which looked so solid and 
so weighty that I doubt if our joint efforts could 
have pushed it back. Fortunately it stood suffi- 
ciently ajar, giving access to a narrow passage be- 
yond, at the extreme end of which lived the sooth- 
sayer, her tiny hut blocking it up and thus forming 
a cul-de-sac. 

By an obliging stretch of imagination this en- 
closed space was divided into two compartments and 
the further one was sufficiently roofed in and 

1 Stranger : Christian. 

63 



64 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

screened to ensure our privacy when we had locked 
the door, after hustling some children off the prem- 
ises, whose curiosity had overcome their terror of 
the demons let loose on the earth after sunset. 

Some glowing embers on the hearth and a tiny 
oil lamp threw an uncertain light on the mud walls ; 
on the rough poles which supported the roof; and 
on the crouching figure of an old woman clad in 
deep red and purple, holding in one hand an ancient 
brass jar, used as a mortar. 

When she rose, she was taller than most Berber 
women and her height was accentuated by all the 
wool she had used to raise her square head-dress 
covered with its white and purple drapery. It sur- 
mounted an old and wrinkled visage and a kindly 
one : though the jaws were toothless, the eyes were 
bright and full of life and intelligence. Habiba 
enjoys quite a vogue amongst her neighbours as a 
medicine woman and is at present attending Abdu- 
rahman's little brother, whose wrist has been in- 
jured and who Is too young — the elder boy says 
with decision — to be treated by the French doctor. 
There is evidently no doubt in his mind as to whose 
skill is superior and the Medecin Major's diplomas 
count for little when weighed in the balance against 
traditions which have been handed down from a re- 
mote past. 

Our reception was a very gracious one, for 
Nakhla is a favourite and I, introduced as a witch 
from the West deeply versed in magic lore, was ac- 
corded the welcome usually extended to a member 



THE SORCERESS 6^ 

of the same confraternity, just arrived from a for- 
eign land. My somewhat fraudulent reputation 
has been built up for me gradually In the town, on 
the strength of the many leading questions I have 
asked, In my efforts to elicit accurate Information as 
to certain customs and especially In regard to religion 
and magic. Also It Is partly based on the very ama- 
teur knowledge of palmistry, which enables me to 
gain some insight into the lives and minds of the 
women. It should be added that the words " stran- 
ger " and " strange," near akin In our own language, 
In Arabic are both expressed by gherih; and Chris- 
tians are often supposed to possess unusual gifts ow- 
ing to an association of Ideas with the raising of the 
dead by Sidi Aisa (Jesus) : an account of the means 
used being frequently given In books on magic. 
There is a rumour abroad that, when I have In- 
creased my skill amongst the Arabs, I propose to 
open an atelier in Paris, and Habiba had already 
sent me a message that she was quite agreeable to a 
mutual exchange of spells and witchcraft generally! 
Though unable to meet her by the acceptance of 
this noble offer, I could at least give her pleasure 
by reading her hand and promised her a long life, 
which delighted her and she referred to this espe- 
cially from time to time during our long Interview. 
Why she should so desire to lengthen her term of 
days was difficult to understand, for she was child- 
less and quite alone; had burled two husbands who 
had been kind to her; and eked out but a scanty sub- 
sistence by weaving the burnous, bonesetting and by 



66 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

her spells and talismans. Still, there were happy 
memories to fill the lonely days and a firm belief in 
her own curative and occult powers — for she took 
herself very seriously — so that her life was fuller 
and her lot immeasurably superior to that of most 
Arab women in their declining years. 

Divination from the lines of the palm was a sur- 
prising novelty and, as far as I have been able to as- 
certain, cheiromancy, as practised In India and in 
Europe, is unknown in North Africa, though invol- 
untary movements of the hands and body have their 
meaning: footprints convey strange information to 
a trained observer: and physiognomy, of which 
traces still linger, was once considered an exact sci- 
ence by Mussulmen, and resorted to in their courts 
of law to settle questions of paternity. In addition, 
every other medium, employed by soothsayers the 
world over, seems in constant use to lift a corner of 
the veil which hides the future. 

It can be well understood that to a race, whose 
language is built up of imagery and whose existence 
is primitive and very near to Nature in her most bea- 
tific mood, the murmurs of the conch shell and the 
flights of birds and arrows might easily suggest 
mental pictures and processes inconceivable by a 
dweller in towns. What wonder is it too that they, 
whose dominion of desire and little lives are rounded 
by a profound fatalism, born of their great soli- 
tudes, should seek for signs by the way to guide them 
in the fulfilment of their unalterable destiny? They 
gaze into the crystal and the magic mirror to see 



THE SORCERESS 67 

with awe the soul projected from the body; hang 
round their necks verses of the Koran enclosed in 
leather to protect them from evil; and ask the aid 
of the more intuitive to read their dreams for them, 
or divine future events from cards, tea or coffee 
grounds, or from grains of sugar or of sand. 

Our witch now turned her attention to my sup- 
posed ills and her brass mortar and pestle came into 
play by the firelight, as well as the contents of many 
little paper packets produced out of a red rag in 
which they had been carefully tied up. As an initi- 
ate in these mysteries I suggested the names of cer- 
tain aromatic plants — myrrh, coriander, caraway 
— which I knew to be necessary for spells : also 
some little flakes of gelatine, or flour did not surprise 
me: but the packet of machine needles was so unex- 
pected that it quite took my breath away and I for- 
got to enquire if they sew up the pains or help to dig 
them out ! 

The old crone handed me a piece of broken crock- 
ery with an injunction to spit into it seven times. It 
was then placed at the bottom of the mortar with 
the aromatic powders, ground up, turned out and 
manipulated into a cake with the fingers and to the 
accompaniment of a murmured incantation. Eight 
needles were selected and placed on top : four one 
way, and four another. Finally, a semi-circle of 
seven flakes of gelatine put the finishing touch to my 
talisman which was waved seven times, with great 
solemnity, round my head. 

The little cake has since been enclosed in a rudi- 



68 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

mentary piece of tin folded over at both ends, but as 
a dirty trickle seems to exude continually from the 
corners, I am, unfortunately, prevented from wear- 
ing it in my hat, or tying it round my neck! 

All this time Nakhla, crouched in the monkey 
like attitude, which only the voluminous draperies 
of Arab women render possible, was patiently await- 
ing her turn, looking very pensive and sad, for there 
have been fresh developments within the last few 
days and those not happy ones. 

We changed places and a very dirty pack of play- 
ing cards was produced and waved seven times round 
the girl's head, during which operation she bent her 
thoughts on the absent sergeant of Zouaves. The 
number seven, it should be said, is of the highest im- 
portance In magic, for God has made seven coun- 
tries, seven seas, seven doors and circles in hell, seven 
members of the body — In short the examples of the 
role it plays In the creation of the universe are too 
numerous to mention. 

The cards were shuffled, cut and dealt into four 
packs, one of which Nakhla selected and the witch 
proceeded to read each card separately as she drew 
it from the bottom of the pack. 

" You have a lover," she said, holding up a king 
with a sceptre. "He Is a fine soldier" (another 
king with a sword). " What happiness he brought 
you " (roots and flowers), " for he loves you as his 
eyes" (more roots and flowers). "Ah, ya, like 
that, for God, he loves you. Pie has eaten In your 
presence " (two stems with branches) " and both 



THE SORCERESS 69 

thought good fortune would be yours " (a long stem 
with many twigs). " Alas ! tears followed " (seven 
roots). "He is a poor man. He has said adieu 
and taken his possessions " (seven lozenges) " and 
has gone away a long distance " (three long knives) . 
" He too weeps all day " (five little knives and 
flowers). 

Nakhla, the tears streaming down her woe-be- 
gone visage, confirmed the truth of the narrative by 
sundry exclamations and nods of the head at inter- 
vals. 

Discarding the packet In her hand the witch se- 
lected another, and by means of it, took up her para- 
ble again : — 

" You have some enemies, bad people " (seven 
knives) "who dwell near you " (two long knives). 
" They will sit at your own hearth " (two lozenges) 
" for you will go back to the man you took before 
the Ca'id " (four disks and the sun in the centre). 
" He has been in prison " (five roots) " for stealing 
some money" (seven disks) "when he was em- 
ployed by Government" (knave on horseback). 
"He will give you a little present" (three large 
disks) " and you take to his house " (large lozenge)^ 
" all your possessions " (five lozenges). 

I looked at Nakhla, dismayed. Was she really 
going back to Aly, who, I now remembered, had once 
been in jail for misappropriating money belonging 
to the Infirmary where he was employed in some 
subordinate capacity. 

" Yes, it was true ! " the poor girl said between 



70 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

sobs. Aly could not get anyone else to marry him 
and had offered her fifteen francs to go back again 
as his wife. Her mother could not keep her, nor 
pay the debt of sixty francs. Lisette, it seemed, had 
given her a padlock for her soiidoiik, so that her few 
treasures might be safe from prying eyes and fingers. 
It was all settled then I Nothing to be done ! Be- 
sides ... it was written. 

Feeling myself quite helpless in the face of this 
village tragedy, I turned instinctively to the witch, 
who proved herself a woman of resource, being no 
doubt well accustomed to deal with similar crises in 
the lives of her neighbours. She suggested that 
what could not be mended, might be modified; but 
the situation was a bad one for Nakhla and a remedy 
could only be sought in the domain of black magic, 
from the cult of the dead. 

About a year previously there had died, after a 
painful lingering illness, a young consumptive, and 
on the day subsequent to his interment, it was ru- 
moured that his grave had been opened and the 
body moved and tampered with. Not too much was 
said about the matter, but it was a theory, generally 
accepted by everyone, that this was the work of the 
sorcerers, who wanted some fragments — perhaps 
of the bones — of the dead youth for their magic 
rites. A body so diseased could be contagious to a 
living person, but it is also believed that the abject 
helplessness of the corpse may be transmitted and 
that food stirred by its hands acquires strange occult 
powers. 



THE SORCERESS 71 

Such food it was Habiba now produced, rolled 
Into tiny pellets called berkouks, five of which she 
counted out carefully, placed them one by one into a 
white metal tube and gave to Nakhla. As that dead 
body, whose cold stiff fingers had touched the pillules, 
could neither see, nor hear, nor speak, so would It 
be with Aly when his wife desired It. As that 
corpse had been powerless against the sorcerers, so 
also would he be submissive to her will. 

Glancing sideways at Nakhla's jaw, which seemed 
suddenly to have hardened and developed — so 
strong is the force of suggestion — I thought that, 
after all, perhaps it would not need berkouks to con- 
quer Aly. 



CHAPTER VII 

EL HAMEL: THE "LOST TOWN " 

" Nulle science positive . . . c^est le desert. 
Aujourd'hui le silence et I'inertie des solitudes, et, 
avec cela, la persuasion que Vislamisme est le dernier 
mot de Dieu sur la vie de I'humanite, entretien- 
nent les Arabes dans une apathie extraordinaire, 
mais logique." Perron. 

December i^th, 19 12. 

CHRISTMAS Day and such exquisite 
weather, sunny, clear and cold, that we felt 
we must mark the festive occasion by an 
expedition to the Arab " university town," some nine 
miles distant, taking our midday meal with us and 
returning in the late afternoon. Lisette had given 
instructions for a vehicle to be in readiness at ten 
o'clock and we descended, well wrapped up and with 
a bundle of rugs to find — the small crowd, which 
Invariably gathers, surrounding a coster barrow of 
unusual length suitable for the transport of flour 
sacks, drawn by one donkey (the donkey of our visit 
to the Moulin Ferrero) and Gaston In attendance! 
Great wrath on the part of us both, finally launched 
at the head of old TatI, the cook (who, our panler 
of food in hand timidly suggested placing a couple 

72 



EL HAMEL: THE "LOST TOWN" 73 

of chairs on the planks) whereupon she hastily re- 
tired into the hotel and we followed, very disap- 
pointed at the failure of our plans. 

However, Abdurahman rose to this occasion and 
went off to search the town, with the result that 
after waiting four hours we were again informed 
our carriage stopped the way. This time it was a 
small and ancient waggonette drawn by two dilapi- 
dated mules, and with Gaston on the box, and the 
whole staff of the Inn to see us off, we at length got 
away. Taking the road past the Fort, with high 
hills on our right and the infirmary buildings skirt- 
ing a wide uneven plain with deep fissures on 
our left, we began a gradual ascent. Soon were 
hemmed in by mountains on either side, though now 
and again a gap in the range enabled us to catch 
fleeting glimpses of an illimitable stretch of sand, 
behind us as far as eye could reach, until it was 
lost in the pure blue of the sky line. Branching off 
from the main road to one less frequented, yet won- 
derfully good, we pursued our way into more open 
country where telegraph poles intruded on the soli- 
tudes to form a connecting link with that busy, hus- 
tling world so foreign to this great silence that, but 
for their reminder, it might very well have ceased 
to be. 

Presently we passed a large low circle of small 
stones thrown carelessly on top of each other and 
flanked by a luxuriant spreading bush hung with 
rags. Here, on Fridays, the faithful meet for 
prayer: it is a sacred place and, in this instance, 



74 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

most probably a sign post by the way, a regouba,'^ to 
show that within measurable distance there lies en- 
shrined the body of a saint. Difficult as it is to ac- 
count for many of the customs in this strange land, 
it has been suggested that the pious, by fastening 
a rag to a shrub, or adding another flint to the heap, 
thus salute from afar their illustrious dead. Some- 
thing there is of pathos in the extreme poverty 
expressed by these, the humblest of all, offerings of 
the nomad who, having neither silver nor gold to 
bestow, gives " of his best: " a strip of his vestment 
and a stone from the roclcy bosom whereon he lays 
his head. 

On the look out now for our destination, round- 
ing a bend of the road, there came suddenly into 
full view a city set upon a hill, sheltered and guarded 
by a great rose brown mountain, seemingly the 
abode of the sun just flooding the sky with the amber 
and red gold of his setting. This a seminary for 
priests ! this great stronghold with a multitude of 
loopholes piercing its walls, and so protected by 
natural defences that vehicles can only approach to 
within half a mile ! Quite taken by surprise we de- 
scended from our waggonette and picked our way 
carefully down a steep ravine with loose stones, lead- 
ing to the bed of the river, where a delicious scent 
of odorant leaves filled the air from a hedge on the 
right hand skirting a palm garden. High above 
our heads, on a cliff facing the town, we saw crouch- 
ing forms looking down at us from over its edge; 

1 Circle or horseshoe of stones. 



EL HAMEL: THE "LOST TOWN" 75 

then moving away doubtless to give warning of the 
arrival of rouamar' We crossed the river on step- 
ping stones, followed the winding of the stream a 
little way, then recrossed to pass under a curious 
natural arch which connects two hills by forming a 
narrow ledge between them, and soon found our- 
selves ascending the rocky steep of the town. At 
once, as If scales had fallen from our eyes, it took 
on a peaceful aspect! The fortifications turned 
Into jagged edges of rock and rough terraces on 
which stood mud houses, or within which the inhab- 
itants had burrowed: whilst the loopholes, with 
danger lurking behind, resolved themselves Into the 
narrow prison slits In pairs where the rays of a too 
brilliant sun gain grudging admission and by illumin- 
ing the corners of each primitive abode only serve 
to throw Its centre Into yet deeper shade. 

The strange transition was but another Instance 
of the alterations which effect themselves In the land- 
scapes of the Sahara, giving birth to the folk lore 
which harps upon wonders wrought by the wands 
of magicians. A spirit embodied of all the ancient 
mysteries enshrined in that city must hover above it, 
weaving a spell to daunt the curious, but perchance 
fainthearted, from approaching Its precincts : even 
yet striving In a ceaseless endeavour to shield by 
Illusion what brute force has rudely laid bare to the 
gaze of the infidel. 

Men were scattered about; some working, some 
Idling and a few children ran out to look at us, 

2 Christians: foreigners. 



76 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

though keeping a safe distance, but never a sign of a 
mel'hafa, or the flutter of a veil: not a glimpse did 
we get throughout the whole of our visit of one of 
those statuesque shrouded figures, so alluring by the 
very secrecy of their grace and hidden charms. 

Lisette with the nimbleness of a mountain goat 
sprang up some great boulders on the right to feast 
her eyes on the surrounding country so exquisitely 
lighted; whilst I, more soberly, climbed the road and 
was met half way up to Its summit by the Interpreter. 
He, the only Arab in that town who can speak 
French, Is by virtue of his role a concession to foreign 
rule and civilisation. — " Are you two quite 
alone? " was his first question, and " What relation 
Is the other one to you? Your daughter? " (this due 
to LIsette's superior agility!) his next. I replied a 
little vaguely that someone was In attendance with 
a carriage and that the lady was my friend. He re- 
peated " friend " after me with a puzzled expres- 
sion, and I have since learned that people who go 
about together, of whatever sex or nationality, are 
presumably always near relations. 

By this time Lisette had joined us where we had 
halted outside the square white Mosque which 
crowns the hill, and has the heart of the town In its 
keeping; sheltering within Its walls the body of Its 
saint, to visit which pilgrims come from far and 
near, presenting their alms to the M'rahet,^ the holy 
man and presiding genius of this community of peas- 
ant folk and students. He stood now, awaiting us, 

2 This M'rabet has since died. 



EL HAMEL: THE "LOST TOWN" 77 

at the portals of the Zaouia,^ his expression faintly 
amused, slightly curious, and perhaps a little hard. 
Wrapped In the folds of a coffee coloured humous, 
the hood of which was drawn over his head: with 
large dark brown eastern eyes set wide apart In a 
somewhat fleshy face, he might very well have 
passed for a rather coarse elderly woman, but for 
his Immense nose, too heavy even for a big man. 
A strange office his, charged with the duties of ad- 
viser; reminiscent of byegone days of mysteries and 
priest magicians, whence probably It had Its origin: 
a heritage of certain families, handed on from one 
member to another, not even excluding women — 
think of It ! — In a country where they are held In 
such universal contempt. 

Leila Zeyneb, the last M'rabta of this hill town, 
died but a. few years since, and so beneficent had 
been her sway, so charitable was she that " her mem- 
ory Is still green In the hearts of her people," and by 
children her name Is spoken as one would whisper 
that of a revered saint, with awe and to bear witness 
to the truth of some statement they have made 
which is open to suspicion. Versed In the art of 
healing, French as well as Arab women brought 
their ailing babies to her, that she should lay her 
hands upon them ; and though she had many suitors 
— being rich — she devoted herself to the care of 
the poor and needy and so lived unmarried till her 
death. 

Hard and stony is his path who follows after so 

* Mosque where the Koran is taught. 



78 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

much sanctity and Leila Zeyneb's successor by no 
means enjoys an equally exalted reputation. Cer- 
tainly it was In somewhat disdainful fashion he ac- 
knowledged, in o-ur presence, the salutations of his 
humble followers, who stooped low to kiss the edge 
of his burnous and by the iVrabs he is secretly con- 
sidered to be avaricious and worldly. 

Not long ago, a certain royal lady, who was trav- 
elling in Algeria, Intimated the wish to honour him 
by a visit. Much impressed by the grandeur of her 
connections in Europe, the M'rabet spared neither 
trouble nor expense to entertain her fittingly at a 
sumptuous luncheon; anticipating in return a deco- 
ration, at least, from the King, her brother. Judge 
then of the blow to his feelings, from which he has 
not yet recovered, when, as the only acknowledg- 
ment of his lavish hospitality the lady in question 
presented him with her photograph! 

However far from grace in the eyes of the faith- 
ful, the M'rahet Is a courteous, kindly host to 
" guests sent by God; " the formula used by Arab 
travellers when they find themselves amongst a tribe 
to whom they are entire strangers. He accompan- 
ied us Into the Zaoiiia to the spacious railed enclosure 
where the saint lies burled (together with his brother 
and daughter) in a great tomb draped with green, 
yellow and red, the colours of Islam. 

It was the hour of moglireh, the fourth invoca- 
tion of the day when the sun sinks to his rest; and In 
the prevailing twilight of the sanctuary, shadowy, 
pale robed figures came and went, or knelt on large 



EL HAMEL: THE "LOST TOWN" 79 

patterned mats of straw facing an ornamental niche, 
its base level with the floor, which indicates the exact 
direction of the sacred city and so ensures the va- 
lidity of prayer. Nought else, save to the left of 
the mihrdh, the preacher's empty chair, and four 
slender columns, to uphold the roof, forming a large 
square in their midst where light drifted in vague 
round and oblong patches from the coloured aper- 
tures of glass in the circular high dome. 

Hither, to the centre of the Mosque come the pro- 
fessors to expound the tenets of the Koran : law and 
religion, one and indivisible : the beginning and the 
end of wisdom for all time: God's final word to hu- 
manity. In Algeria, the Mussulman, whether he be- 
long to the Hanefites or the Malekites (both ortho- 
dox sects) has kept his faith practically intact with 
a strong impress upon it of local tradition and col- 
ouring. Few missionaries of other creeds come 
here. Realising that they would spend their ener- 
gies in vain, they have for the most part followed 
the advice of Mgr. le Roy, to leave the Mussulman 
In peaceful fatalistic submission to the Divine Will 
after the manner enjoined by the Prophet. 

To learn the Koran by heart is a merit, and to 
read it, as interpreted by the " Fathers " of Islam 
in seven different ways, a science. Whether certain 
chapters are of greater worth than others forms a 
subject of high debate, a thorny ground for argu- 
ment: the hundredth name of God, a basis for end- 
less conjecture. It Is known only to prophets and 
saints, the great Initiates : but the remaining ninety 



8o A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

and nine are common property, each one bearing 
its own special significance and having its peculiar 
advantages if frequently repeated at a certain hour, 
or after one of the five canonical prayers. For in- 
stance, to recite Mouhdimn (guardian) an hour and 
a half after eucha, when the brief twilight has 
merged suddenly Into complete darkness and the 
fifth, and last, prayer has been spoken, brings in the 
night watches true visions to the dreamer of all the 
future holds in store. More than this, the true be- 
liever who for many years has repeated at the close 
of each day the name of Aziz, meaning sweet, nine- 
ty-four times in succession (that being the numerical 
value of the letters composing it) may confidently 
expect, not only an abundance of riches, but also the 
fulfilment of his heart's desire. 

The teacher, seated oriental fashion on the 
ground against a pillar of the Mosque, with his little 
group of students crouching around him, directs the 
suppression of final sounds in certain verses of the 
Sacred Book, prolongs, or abbreviates an articula- 
tion; settles the precise enunciation of each written 
word. Here then are mental gymnastics sufficient 
for the lifetime of the scholars to the satisfactory 
exclusion of all else ! A few, perhaps already mem- 
bers of some mystic confraternity, even future 
M'rahets, spend their entire days In these studies 
and in prayer, and all, at least to outward seeming, 
are ascetics. They are lodged at a stone's throw 
from the Mosque, In a long row of one-storied low- 
roofed dwellings, all united, each cell the counterpart 



EL HAMEL: THE "LOST TOWN" 8i 

of the rest. The one we visited was occupied by a 
professor, who rose at our entrance from a large 
straw mat spread in the corner, having but a single 
small pillow. The bare white walls were partly 
screened off by his clothing obviously just washed 
and hanging across the little room to dry: a square 
box called a soiidoiik held the rest of his possessions. 
He was studying from a printed copy of the Koran, 
but showed us another, more highly prized because 
handwritten with laborious care in the Arab charac- 
ter, which, with its twirls and flourishes and curves, 
its frequent touches of colour, its glint of gold when 
the name of Allah appeared, made of each page a 
picture. 

Judging by his slight build; his refined face, with 
its somewhat weak chin, framed in a white ha'ik; his 
gentle bearing; this savant, of thirty years or so, 
must rule his classes by suasion rather than by force. 
He seemed so entirely a part of his simple surround- 
ings, very far away from the mundane affairs of life, 
a scholarly recluse and visionary, whose peace had 
been rudely broken by our worldly selves, so that 
we hesitated to advance beyond the threshold of his 
cell and soon left him once more to his dreaming. 

As we retraced our steps the M'rahet, through the 
interpreter, offered us coffee, an invariable custom 
of this country. Hospitality is a sacred duty, so 
much so that for an Arab to refuse it, unless he can 
plead that he is under a vow to fast, is worse than a 
discourtesy: is, in fact, an injury to his host. The 
daylight, unfortunately, was fast dying, and we were 



82 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

unwillingly obliged to avail ourselves of the privi- 
leges of foreigners by urging the necessity of an im- 
mediate departure before nightfall. With a cour- 
teous interchange of pleasant speeches, including 
much praise from us of their lovely country which 
rejoices the Arab's heart, we hastened away just as 
the sun vanished on the further side of his rose 
brown home. He left behind him a beautiful lu- 
minous glow which lingered in the sky whilst we 
sped on to find our waggonette. As we drove away, 
looking a long farewell at that strange city on the 
hill, again the scene was changed. We gazed on a 
mountain fortress which we had been graciously 
permitted to enter for a brief space, to catch but a 
fleeting glimpse of its elusive mysteries, which may 
be revealed only to the faithful followers of Islam. 
A thin haze of blue smoke rose slowly till town, and 
hill and Mosque a'top of all were hid from sight, 
completely veiled by a thick curtain from this out- 
side world of disillusion and realities. Abruptly the 
light faded out of the sky and all the land was dark. 

We had proceeded some distance when we heard 
shouting and could dimly discern figures moving by 
the roadside. Presently a woman's voice, pitched 
in the high key of anxiety and excitement called to 
us in French to stop and help her. It was one of the 
schoolmistresses, who had taken advantage of her 
holiday to go with some of her small pupils for a 
picnic; but the mule she had borrowed from the 
Arab master had escaped and was kicking up its 



EL HAMEL: THE "LOST TOWN" 83 

heels, evading capture, in high glee at such unex- 
pected freedom. 

We were several kilometres from home and LIs- 
ette offered her the only vacant seat in our vehicle 
but, frightened though she was, she could not leave 
the children, nor yet the mule which would soon 
have been annexed by wandering nomads. Gaston 
tried, with many wiles, to trap the creature, but with- 
out a lasso and a horse the task was hopeless, so 
promising to send help shortly we drove quickly 
away. The moon rose, flooding the earth save 
where we were between the mountains, in a land of 
deep shadows till we reached the open road and saw 
a ball, more red than silver, hanging suspended 
above the town. 

Right ahead lights bobbed and flickered, which 
proved to be the lanterns of a search party. We 
were hailed by the Arab schoolmaster who was in 
great anxiety about his mule and perhaps. Inciden- 
tally, his European colleague. On hearing Gas- 
ton's brief explanation, he rapped out a French oath 
and, without a " bye your leave " or apology, 
boarded our chariot to get back the quicker for help. 
He is, no doubt, a fair specimen of that unpleasant 
state of transition when a little book learning and 
small authority under the new order brings the af- 
fliction known as swelled head and a total forgetful- 
ness of the traditional native courtesy which still ex- 
ists, with all its charm, amongst the more unlettered. 

In their policy of assimilation; their endeavour 
to create a " France over the water " of their col- 



84 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

ony, divided into " departements " like the mother 
country, the chief medium employed by the French 
is the communal school. To It go French, Arabs 
and Jews, all on an equal footing learning the same 
lessons. It amuses Lisette to put Abdallah through 
his paces when he pays us a chance visit, with a lurk- 
ing hope of a few sous for coffee, a toy aeroplane, 
or some other treasure from that vaguely wonderful 
city of Paris. He, nothing loath, feet bare, hum- 
ous in rags, his thin oval face with large brown eyes 
full of Intelligence, pours forth a mass of undigested 
Information, principally events In French history: 
and told us the other day with great emphasis and 
a hint of amusement that It was the English who had 
burned alive " la Sainte Jeanne D'Arc ! " 

After this exhibition of learning we all went out 
together : he following In our wake, greatly charmed 
with a pair of blackened eyeglasses, which he used 
with great effect as we passed through the Ghetto, 
" pour regarder les Juifs " as he told us, contempt 
In his tones, and voicing for everyone of his race 
their disdain and hatred for the Jew, who, little by 
little, lays hold, where he can, of their heritage. 

Thus it may be very well to rub shoulders In school 
hours, but when playtime comes it Is another mat- 
ter. If Paulus, the hotel bull dog, getting bored 
with Mrs. Paulus and her squealing brown puppies, 
noses out a dirty cotton rag and invites the Briffa's 
fox terrier to a tug of war In the Square, French and 
Jew boys join merrily In the fun: or, together they 
will tease some Arab woman till she runs out of her 



EL HAMEL: THE "LOST TOWN" 85 

house to throw stones at them : but should you see a 
little group, squatting on heels, close up, each burn- 
ous a shade dingier than its neighbour's, some plain, 
others striped brown and red — a little company of 
snails and caterpillars — they are all Arabs with a 
dozen or so of coloured marbles, or a row of knuckle 
bones, a stone and a steady aim. 

The favourite pastime of the men amongst the 
poorer class is draughts. After midday, In almost 
any street, outside a cafe or the Turkish baths, ab- 
sorbed players can be seen squatting on large straw 
mats, with perhaps a low stool between them on 
which the board rests, every alternate square de- 
pressed and the men of two different shapes, not 
varying in colour like ours. Lazier folk look on 
meanwhile; or lie, rolled up, against the walls; 
their heads completely covered by their hoods and 
propped up on the shoes they have just taken off. In 
the soundest of sound sleep which nothing short of 
a cannonade would disturb. 




CHAPTER VIII 

FANTASIA 

'' Occasion precieuse de revetir des costumes bril- 
lants, de faire galoper dans le vent et la fum.ee 
quelques chevaux fougueux et surtout de faire 
parler la poudre" Isabelle Eberhardt. 

December 2gth, 191 2. 
S the year draws to its close, from my post 
of observation on the balcony, I witness 
many departures and farewells. One morn- 
ing It Is the tirailleur officer who sends off his bag- 
gage on a camel before he comes in to breakfast 
with his late Chief, and they make pretty speeches 
to each other over a bottle of champagne. Another 
day the red Cavaliers, followed by a crowd of well 
wishers, take the road to Djelfa and Laghouat; and 
then, one sunless afternoon, a little company of 
Mokhazni,^ picturesque Cavaliers of the blue burn- 
ous, dismount at the corner to rest their hands on the 
shoulders of old friends; or turn in their saddles for 
one last long backward look, leaving no doubt many 
sore hearts behind them and mine amongst the num- 
ber ! 

Last night the civilians arrived in sombre official 
uniforms of black, French-grey and silver. 

1 Soldiers of the blue burnous, 

86 



FANTASIA 87 

Here then is a golden opportunity for fetes and 
fantasia!^ The M'Zabites have organised their 
welcome " all on their own wild lone " for they and 
the Arabs have no sympathies, no Ideas, hardly the 
same creed, In common; and mutually detest each 
other. Abdallah has impressed upon me more than 
once that there are five distinct races of people in the 
world, and he counts them out on his own fingers as 
follows; First, the real Arabs; second, the French; 
third, the English; fourth, the Jews; fifth and last, 
the M'Zabites. 

There is a fair number of them trading In this 
place and they muster in the Square in full force " to 
make the powder speak." Forming into two lines, 
say six abreast, they rush forward ; the first row faces 
round suddenly in the centre to confront those fol- 
lowing behind and, simultaneously, about a dozen 
old blunderbusses are fired straight into the earth. 
There ensues a deafening din; clouds of smoke; 
gravel flying in all directions. 

It seems a most dangerous amusement with such 
antique weapons, which, moreover, take an endless 
time to load, and It Is not surprising that hands are 
frequently blown right off. Luckily, no such fatal- 
ity occurs today and the performers do so enjoy 
themselves, flinging their guns Into the air and 
springing up to catch them with a great display of 
lemon coloured leather boots, with green devices, 
that would do honour to a pantomime at Drury 
Lane. A clown creates much mirth by imitating 

2 Festivity ; frivolity. 



88 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

them, rushing about with a long green wand, cut at 
the top into a triangle, which he pretends is a gun to 
the delight of the onlool^ers; amongst whom I see 
many foresters in the rich green burnous suggestive 
of the beautiful woods they protect, and Arab police 
in dark blue uniforms with wide belts of rose colour. 

Of the old regime but a few are left to hand over 
affairs to the new comers, and the Commandant be- 
ing practically quite dead, the Arab chiefs have come 
in, from the surrounding district, with their mounted 
followers, to pay their respects to his successor and 
to cry, " Long live the Administrator and the French 
Republic." 

At every available point flags flutter joyfully in 
the breeze and, from the far distance, comes the 
sound of martial music, recalling the bagpipes of my 
own country till, at close quarters, the resemblance 
fades. It is the melancholy strains of the qudita ^ 
which strike upon my ear, mingled with the tramp 
of many horses and the measured beat of the hna- 
der^ 

Though It has been very cold of late, with frosty 
nights, and we cannot be far off the winter rains, to- 
day the sun Is en fete, as he should be of course on 
so important an occasion. He never thinks of shirk- 
ing his duties In the Sahara, and he shines gloriously 
on the colours of Islam floating at the head of 
this gay cavalcade and on the banners of the Aghas, 
as they round the corner of the Square, which pres- 

3 Flute. 
* Tomtom. 



FANTASIA 89 

ently is filled with the prancing, curvetting, restless 
chargers of the Goum.^ 

Oh! the delight of displaying their magnificent 
horsemanship before the admiring crowd; of reining 
in their nervous restless steeds, pawing the air In 
their excitement at the tumult; or, of backing them 
Into the little knot of onlookers at their heels. 

The Cai'ds make a fine show In the ofiicial humous 
of bright scarlet, on top of a white one, finely woven. 
The hood of the latter Is sometimes brought over 
and falls on the back, like a Carmelite friar's, unless 
there Is a magnificent gold tassel to dangle effectively 
above the high-backed saddle adorned with an inlay 
of gold. Their ha'iks and long guenader are of 
white silk and when, with a superb gesture, a dandy 
flings his red mantle back over his shoulder display- 
ing the silken sheen beneath, he also shows off Its 
pale blue edging and the arabesques embroidered In 
bright yellow silk which beautify the corner. Is It 
any wonder that they are swollen with pride, these 
Cai'ds; have " fantasia In the head " as Abdallah ex- 
presses It? They are booted with rose red filali^ 
with golden acorns on the Insteps and two or three 
of them boast a surprising number of decorations, 
which put just the finishing touch to their ofiicial 
splendour. 

For a full half hour the scene Is a wonderful ka- 
leidoscope of shifting colours, but at length the frag- 
ments settle and assume a more definite shape. The 

''Mounted followers of an Arab Chieftain. (Pronounced Goom). 
^ Erom Tafilalet, in Oran where the leather is prepared. 



90 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

Goiim line the Square on both sides and the Adminis- 
trator, his aides and the officers group themselves at 
the corner — athwart from where I sit — at the 
foot of the hilly road which leads past the Fort. 

Immediately facing me, on a beautiful grey 
charger with a saddle cloth of crimson velvet, its 
trappings Inlaid with gold and with gilded box stir- 
rups, is a very great personage indeed. Attired in a 
long coat of red velvet, lined with silk of a lighter 
shade and richly embroidered with gold thread; his 
handsome bearded face framed in a hdik of white 
silk, he and his gaily caparisoned steed transport me 
out of this prosaic age to a far away era before 
the coming oi rouama. Similarly clad and magnifi- 
cently mounted, remote ancestors of his swept across 
the sandy plains of the desert at the head of troops 
of wild tribesmen shouting barbaric battle cries to 
sack a Ksar '' or to avenge a wrong. 

Absolutely haughtily impassive, his demeanour 
never changes. No shade of feeling Is permitted to 
disturb that set countenance of his, not even when 
his little son of twelve in a sombre suit of maroon 
acquits himself so bravely, galloping wildly on his 
black pony to salute the representative of France arid 
racing past the little group of officers, away out of 
sight up the hill. For the Fantasia Is In full swing 
now and for an hour or more, in twos and threes and 
fours, the Mokhazni and the tribesmen charge across 
the Square, from end to end, rising In their stirrups 

'' Headquarters of a tribe. 



FANTASIA 91 

with the crack, crack, crack of their rifles and wav- 
ing their gleaming sword blades in the sun. 

This of course has been quite an unusual occasion; 
but in every year there is a red letter day when the 
Goum invariably muster in full force to take their 
share in the great annual event of the races. 

Then the grand stand is packed to overflowing 
with spectators, for visitors come from Algiers, from 
France, from England, even from America ; the cen- 
tre seats are filled with them and Arabs occupy long 
rows of benches either side. Even so, this is but the 
smallest portion of the swarm of onlookers, for 
every available point of vantage on the hilly ground 
behind, which commands at least some portion of 
the course, is crowded with knots of white draped 
excited men. The women too are allowed to cover 
the house tops, to see the luckier sex go by from a 
safe distance, and always closely veiled. The dan- 
cing girls, dressed out in all their finery, are brought 
in basotirs ^ on camels, which are made to kneel in a 
row close to the Judge's box, thus bringing the be- 
jewelled painted Idols down to the level of a curious 
mob. 

Suddenly everyone Is quiet . . . waiting in 
breathless expectation. Far off a low rumbling noise 
as of thunder ... It approaches . . . nearer . . . 
nearer. People rise from their seats . . . push 
forward with keen only half suppressed excitement. 

Wild war music; galloping hoofbeats; confused 

* Large open basket over which curtains are drawn. A sort of 
litter. 



92 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

sense of the forces of air let loose on the earth; brief 
vision of veiled faces, of foam jflecked chargers, of 
mantles and draperies swept out by the breeze and a 
great body of horsemen sweeps past like the wind. 
. . . They are here. . . . They are gone. . . . 
Clouds of dust follow them, cover them, hide them; 
blind the spectators. Silence again. 

They have cleared, now, the furthest point; 
rounded the race-course, the screams of the dancing 
girls cheering them, urging them on. Spurring their 
maddened steeds, in a compact mass they come . . . 
an incarnate warcloiid . , . they charge ... as 
into battle. Like Jove's thunderbolt, in a flash they 
are here again . . . like a flash they have gone. 

It is over! That wonderful Ride of the Goum! 



CHAPTER IX 

AN INFALLIBLE CURE 

" The Mou'abbir ^ must he educated, learned in 
the Koran and in dogma, know Arabic well, he 
experienced in mankind, be chaste, pure, sincere." 

E. DOUTTE. 

February iSth, 19 13. 

"AOR some weeks past I had seen nothing of Ab- 
dallah, nor heard his voice beneath my balcony 
asking permission to come and see me after 
school, or better still on Sunday. Was it because 
the weather had been cold and wet of late? Ex- 
traordinarily cheerless too, and his mauve cotton gan- 
doura (which looks so gay in the sunshine) and his 
ragged burnous are inadequate garments to keep the 
rain off his lithe brown body. Certainly it was no 
great surprise to me that, when he came at length 
the other afternoon, his face looked drawn and 
pinched and his sombre black eyes larger than ever 
and unnaturally bright. 

" Yes, he had had fever," he said dejectedly in 
answer to my queries, " and very badly too." How- 
ever his uncle, a mou'abbir^ had given him a wonder- 
ful talisman, which was never known to fail, so the 

1 Holy man. 

93 



94 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

ague (the work of the djinns, who are the cause of 
all maladies) had been driven out of him and only 
the weakness and great lassitude remained. 

Why had he not come to me for quinine? 

He had taken some of the tabloids which were left 
over from the last attack, but it was evident he had 
little faith in the drug and much more In the exor- 
cisms of his revered relative and the h'erz ^ he had 
given him. 

Did he think that, for a moderate fee, the mou- 
'abhir could be induced to write a h' erz for m,e to 
cure, say, headache? 

Oh, yes ! of that he had no doubt, or for any other 
pain, Including love too and jealousy; but, on no ac- 
count must I offer him any payment for It. A moii- 
'ahbir who sold a h'erz would be very badly thought 
of Indeed. 

This was awkward, for I could hardly ask his un- 
cle to make me a present of one of his precious med- 
ical prescriptions. As yet, I had not even a bowing 
acquaintance with the old man, whom I remembered 
seeing about the town, obviously respected and re- 
spectable, wearing a large pair of steel rimmed 
glasses which assist In making him look the t'dleh ^ 
he is reputed to be. Perhaps, however, the difficulty 
might be overcome m some way and as Infallible 
cures are well worth having and not always avail- 
able, I ventured to suggest to Abdallah that he 
should make an appointment for me as, and when, 

2 Meaning a preservative. 
2 Scholar. 



AN INFALLIBLE CURE 95 

possible. Should we say Thursday next ? The sev- 
enth ^ day of the week is accounted fortunate for 
fresh undertakings, as it was on a Thursday the chief 
butler entered Joseph's prison, and Mahomet re- 
turned to the Sacred City. 

Yesterday, therefore, the pair of us met at the old 
man's house in the Arab town and were received by 
his daughter, who has just been divorced by her hus- 
band and has returned, with an infant, to live with 
her father. From what it was possible to glean, in 
a very short interview, of her experiences in life, she 
did not appear to have inherited any of the saintly 
proclivities of her venerable parent. 

Quite the best and most airy portion of the hut 
was inhabited by a donkey, so I was relieved to hear 
that the consultation would take place on the terrace 
above, where we would be undisturbed. In the 
strong sunlight of the early afternoon we found the 
mou'abbir patiently awaiting us, looking very patri- 
archal In snow white garments, with a long rosary 
round his neck of olive wood beads, by means of 
which he is said to divine. Beside him lay some 
large sheets of paper, a pen and a bottle of smoq,^ 
for I had impressed upon Abdallah that my h! erz 
must be of the best in all respects and written with 
magic ink, which is a preparation of animal black ob- 
tained from carbonised wool diluted with water. 

After we had exchanged the customary greetings, 
I seated myself in the shade, on ar large square piece 

* Counting from Friday, the Mahometan Sunday. 
^ Magic ink. 



96 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

of matting covered with a red melh'afa opposite to 
the picturesque specialist on all diseases of mind and 
body and informed him that I wished to be cured of 
pains in the head. 

He nodded sagely and, as a preliminary, rose and 
came over to me with a sheet of paper in his hand 
which he waved slowly seven times round my hat, 
murmuring an exorcism, or incantation. He then 
reseated himself in his whitewashed corner and, 
after enquiring my " little " (christian) name, which 
he had great trouble to pronounce and transcribe, he 
set to work to write the infallible cure. 

As this promised to be a lengthy proceeding, I in- 
vited the daughter and a friend with a baby to keep 
me company on my mat and they allowed me to ex- 
amine their trinkets and the various fandangles 
v/hich all Arab women hang about their persons. 

Of these the most charming and novel to me was 
an article peculiar to this place called a maroued, 
consisting of a rudely chased silver tube, with a 
moveable top, to hold koh'eul and attached by a 
chain to a holder In which was a pencil, about two 
inches long, made of the horn of a gazelle, burnt 
black. , How often have I witnessed this important 
operation of the toilette, and have been instructed 
how to blacken my own eyebrows and, beneath my 
lashes, elongate my eyes in the most approved Arab 
fashion. It needs the aid of a mirror set in red 
leather sewn up with gay purple wool and protected 
by a little cover pierced with many holes, which 



AN INFALLIBLE CURE 97 

hangs on the breast, or at the waist, alongside a 
pocket matching in size and colour and perhaps an- 
other tube, full of perfume. Round the neck are 
pendant a multitude of articles of all shapes, sorts 
and sizes, mainly amulets and charms. 

Half hidden by their draperies my friends wore 
tahsmans enclosed In a little piece of tawny or rose 
red leather fastened down with a latchet, as mine 
will be also, when presently completed. The moii- 
'abbir's daughter had chosen to guard herself against 
all kinds of sorcery; her visitor, from accidents 
by water; and both were protected from the much 
dreaded evil eye by " hands of Fatma," ^ suspended 
by silken threads studded thickly - with cloves. 
Khams, as the Mussulmen call these curious little 
silver ornaments (from the word khamsa, meaning 
five), bear little resemblance to a real hand save for 
their five excrescences, but It seems to be the number 
Itself which is so important and which runs seven 
very close in favour with the primitive Inhabitants 
of Northern Africa. Perhaps It may be said that 
whilst seven belongs to the domain of magic, five has 
a beneficent religious significance. There are five 
dogmas In the Mussulman creed; five sacred duties to 
be performed by the true believer; five daily prayers 
to be said by him, each one with Its five attitudes. 
Also the pentacle plays Its part in written amulets, 
but evidently Its properties are not suited to my case, 
for I saw at once that the mou'abbir had not used It, 

® The Prophet's daughter. 



98 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

but had inserted another figure In my talisman, to 
which a curious legend is attached and which is 
known by the name of Solomon's Seal. 

The sign was engraved, so says the story, on a ring 
which gave the Jewish King dominion over djinns 
and animals. Being greatly enamoured of one of 
his concubines, he ordered a demon to erect for her 
a statue of her father as she desired, but which the 
young girl soon began to worship. This so offended 
the Almighty that he sent a devil to steal the ring 
by a ruse and thus deprive Solomon of the power 
he had misused, and it was only when God's wrath 
was appeased that the King was permitted to find the 
seal again in a fish. 

Sometimes the Intersected triangles enclose a star, 
sometimes the name of God, but In whatever form 
it appears, the figure Is extremely popular In Algeria 
and the faith It engenders no doubt helps to effect the 
cures. 

Thinking the seance was at an end I rose, prepara- 
tory to departure, but the old man made me reseat 
myself that he might again wave the paper round my 
head and mutter another incantation. Finally, he 
breathed three times on my toque, for the breath is 
the vital principle, of which the incantation is the 
concrete form and In Arabic there Is but one word, 
nefs, for breath and soul. 

He had evidently done all In his power, and that 
in good faith, and had expended some time and 
thought to cure my ills. What was I to do In re- 
turn? Would he be so good as to accept a little 



AN INFALLIBLE CURE 99 

present from me wherewith to buy coffee? To this 
my physician was graciously pleased to give his as- 
sent and, feeling quite happy at my successful di- 
plomacy, I was turning to go, when involuntarily I 
arrested my steps and stood for awhile motionless 
and silent, for, looking up at the neighbouring ter- 
race, I saw — for the first time — Hafsa. 



CHAPTER X 

HAFSA 

"Ah! lorsque le coeur est mort 
Rien ne saurait le faire renaitre." 

Arab Song. 

" I think that there is something killed in me." 

SHE was bending slightly forward with a look 
on her face of a faint surprise at what was hap- 
pening beneath her. One slim little hand 
with Its fragile wrist, always a sign of an old, old 
race, was poised on the balustrade, pale olive against 
its whiteness. She had the appearance of a beauti- 
ful wild bird, just ready for flight and her eyes too 
conveyed this Idea, having lost something out of 
them that makes for the ordinary maiden. Woman 
she was not, nor child, as she stood there : her pale 
oval face framed by a blue silk mendil shot through 
with bright green; tiny crosses tatooed under her lips 
(which had no need of carmine to tint them) and 
on her cheeks — untouched by khalouk^ The sun, 
pouring his pitiless searching beams right down on 
her, could illumine no flaw; but, rather, he sought to 
envelope her In his radiance and lent all his aid to 
enhance her loveliness, as he would an exquisite jewel 
1 Rouge. 



HAFSA loi 

set round with the gleam of emeralds and turquoise. 
Tales I had heard of the charms Arab men wear to 
protect themselves from the wiles of djinn women, 
who come to earth to bewitch them, floated Into my 
mind; and, even as I gazed, spellbound, she was 
suddenly gone and I realised she had been out on the 
terrace unveiled and alone. For the storm that had 
raged for a few months In her life had left her coldly 
Indifferent to the comments of others. Was any- 
thing more left to be said? They could say It. 

She was Hafsa, I knew, daughter of old Mo- 
hamed-ben-Sayi'a, who had been foolishly fond of 
her, carrying her about on his outstretched arms, as 
one would a doll, dressed In nlle green gossamer 
scattered over with bouquets of roses; tiny anklets 
clinking above her red shoes and her little wrists 
laden with bangles. How other men laughed when 
they saw him ! Had the child been a boy, they could 
have well understood It, but a girl! . . . 

Thus a great love had sheltered her early child- 
hood tin her father died, leaving his adored little 
daughter In the charge of Aly, the worthless, and of 
Fatlma, her handsome — and soon notorious — 
mother. As much neglected now as she had once 
been cared for, and left almost entirely to herself 
and her own devices, she spent her days crouched 
against the Hntel of the doorway, making a sahfa ^ 
with mud from the street, or fashioning a rag doll 
to take her out walking at Enndir, as do all little 
Arab girls at the fete of the New Year. 

2 A large shallow dish. 



102 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

Poor old Mohamed-ben-Sayia's body must often 
have turned In its grave by the sand dunes, with hor- 
ror that his Hafsa should thus be exposed outside 
the house, In company with children of a poorer, 
lower grade : for, growing bolder, she began to wan- 
der on the slopes of the river bed amongst the defla, 
and It was there that Meunler saw her and took her 
as a model for his masterpiece. 

He found her one day under an almond tree that 
was shedding Its flowers, as the fresh breeze swayed 
Its branches to and fro In the sunshine. She was 
seated: her arms clasped about her knees — such a 
winsome, caressing, joyous human creature with a 
childish prettiness that bears but a faint resemblance 
to the weird, uncanny beauty of the Hafsa of to-day. 

Her little face was turned upwards to greet with 
glee the showers of fragile blossoms that, lightly, 
tenderly brushing her olive cheek, fell around her 
and slipped Into the red drapery — all open at the 
throat — which outhned the suppleness and grace of 
her slender form. 

So Meunler painted her, In the soft languid days 
of late spring, calling his picture, " Baisers d'Aman- 
dler." 

He was at all times an enthusiast about his work 
and now every fibre within his being responded to 
the strange loveliness of his surroundings; to a life 
so like — he being French — and yet so wholly dlf= 
ferent from that hved In the West; to the feast of 
colour, which stirred his senses; and, above all, to 
the luminous atmosphere, which is all the glory and 



HAFSA 103 

the charm of these towns of the desert. He became 
ecstatic, as with a vision; and he painted, painted 
always, day after day, utterly absorbed in his work, 
throughout the gorgeous springtime Into summer 
and failed to see that with a suddenness, as the twi- 
light fades Into night in these tropical regions; or, 
as swift as the change from dawn Into morning, so 
Hafsa had passed Into girlhood. 

After his great picture was finished, he began to 
make another study of her In the Arab house which 
he had adapted to his needs, with Its wide terraces 
commanding a superb view over the race course and 
the sand dunes to the amethyst mountains beyond. 
From time to time, friends dropped in to see him, 
for he was popular with men and, when his work 
was done for the day, he was glad to welcome his 
comrades of the brush, or the officers for whom time 
dragged somewhat wearily In that far away little 
garrison. Especially for one, the young Lieutenant 
Balard, who was but newly arrived, yet already la- 
menting his boredom; and not being too considerate 
of others, he began to present himself unasked whilst 
the artist was still at work in his studio. Always 
goodnatured and feeling the re-action set in after his 
long weeks of toil however enchanting — Meunler 
refrained from saying nay to his too frequent vis- 
itor; who, moreover, was bright and entertaining 
enough to amuse him. He had even thought of 
someday painting the handsome vivacious face, 
though It was distinctly marred by Its air of too great 
a self-satisfaction and its somewhat weak chin. That 



I04 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

Hafsa was an attraction to the young officer never 
seems to have occurred to Meunier, and however 
much Balard may have looked at the model, in his 
presence he rarely exchanged a word with her. 

On Midsummer Day, the sittings came to an end. 
Promising Hafsa that he would return in September 
to paint her again, and smiling kindly into the trou- 
bled brown eyes that looked back so sorrowfully into 
his, Meunier departed to seek a cooler clime. 

When he had gone Hafsa, without occupation or 
resource of any kind, wandered about again, as had 
been her wont; and at once the lieutenant began to 
waylay and importune her with such Arabic as he 
had at his disposal together with the language which 
needs not words. Altogether lonely and sorely 
missing the artist, the girl at first may have shown 
herself passive to this love making; but soon she be- 
gan to get frightened and even to actively dislike her 
admirer; fled, when she saw him coming, and hid 
herself as best she might. 

Balard, having by this time quite lost his head; 
when his vanity was wounded, lost also all sense of 
decency; went straightway to Aly and demanded 
Hafsa of him. 

The household was straitened in its means since 
Meunier's departure, for he had paid his model well 
and her life with her mother and Aly had for a time 
been more tolerable in consequence. Apart from 
this, Aly wanted to marry and had not the where- 
withal to purchase a bride. It occurred to him that 
it would be an excellent arrangement to sell his sis- 



HAFSA 105 

ter to the French officer for a good round sura^ with 
which he could buy Nakhla for himself. 

How much Hafsa resisted, who can say? A girl 
has no rights : she is the property of her parents and 
may be disposed of as they think fit. Her kind old 
father was dead long since. Fatima always on Aly's 
side had no objection to offer; only mother and son, 
both dearly loving fantasia and excitement, stipu- 
lated that there must be a marriage. 

Balard held out against this farce for a long time : 
offered more money Instead, much more than he 
could afford being already in debt to the Jev/s; but 
Aly stood firm, deeming his own dignity at stake. 
He and Fatima played on the lieutenant; telling him 
that they were sending Hafsa away; were going to 
marry her to someone else, till the man, half crazy 
by now, yielded. 

One night, clad in a humous like any Arab, pre- 
ceded by the banging of tomtoms and by torches and 
lighted candles: half blinded by the smoke of innu- 
merable squibs let off at his feet; and surrounded by 
a herd of men and children marching in noisy pro- 
cession, the Frenchman led to his house the silent, 
closely veiled figure of Hafsa. Naturally there was 
a scandal; to be followed a few days later by more 
talk, for the girl ran away; to her mother who should 
have given her protection, but did not. She was 
taken back to Balard again and the matter was 
hushed up. 

For a few weeks all was quiet: nothing was heard, 
or seen, of Hafsa. 



io6 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

Then, sooner than he had said, or intended; in the 
early days of September, when it is still unbearably 
hot at noontide, but the light of the morning is 
golden and the sun sets over an enchanted land, 
Meunier came back. 

He had hardly set foot in the place when his ears 
were assailed by the hideous story of the mock mar- 
riage and what had followed it. With a sense of 
dismay he realised how he had himself been to 
blame, unwittingly of course, but still how culpable, 
and went straightway to find Aly, whom he met just 
outside Fatima's house. Where was his model? 
Aly, with a great show of importance, said she was 
married and referred Meunier to his friend, Lieuten- 
ant Balard. Whereupon the artist, wrathful even 
to folly, cursed Aly in his own tongue and knocked 
him down. 

This scene was witnessed by Abdallah, Aly's half 
brother, who loathed his father's elder son and who 
had secretly resented the sale of Hafsa to a roumi,^ 
whom, both by law and- religion (which are one and 
indivisible) she was forbidden to marry. 

Perhaps it was he, who conveyed the news of 
Meunier's return to his poor little half sister, for 
next day she ran away for the second time from Bal- 
ard and again took refuge with her mother. 

About nine o'clock that evening the artist was 
smoking his pipe on the little green balcony in front 
of his house when he saw Abdallah racing towards 
him and with all speed went down to meet him. 

3 Stranger ; Christian. 



HAFSA 107 

Breathless and panting, the boy implored him to 
come. Hafsa had sent him. She had run away. 
Aly was trying to drag her back. There was no 
time to be lost. 

When they arrived at Fatima's house the door 
was shut and surrounded by a curious, gaping crowd, 
attracted thither by the sounds of weeping and scold- 
ing, within. Aly, it seemed, had gone to fetch the 
lieutenant and the pair presently made their appear- 
ance, the Frenchman swaggering on ahead, already 
enraged by Hafsa's desertion, and still more so, 
when he saw Meunier awaiting him. He began by 
blustering, to overawe the Arabs by his official posi- 
tion, and a violent altercation ensued between the 
two men. Then, with Aly's help, he tried to gain 
admission into the house where, on no pretext could 
the artist have followed them, without committing 
a breach of the conventions which would never have 
been tolerated. 

Meunier would soon have been overpowered had 
not Abdallah, the quickwitted, already dashed off to 
summon his brother artists to his aid, knowing that 
they would rally to a man around their comrade, 
whilst Balard could hardly expect to find a backing. 
As a result the lieutenant was obliged to retire de- 
feated, and Aly and Fatima were bound over with 
dire threats to leave the unhappy girl in peace for 
the night. 

On this occasion the scandal was too great, and in- 
volved too many French, to be ignored by the au- 
thorities, and next day the storm broke, raging 



io8 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

around and altogether outside and apart from its un- 
willing cause who, by the very force of the torrent 
evoked was washed into a quiet backwater, where 
for her all was still. 

The matter occupied days: even weeks. There 
was an inquiry : correspondence. The General came 
on his tour of inspection and Interviewed Fatima. 
Lieutenant Balard was sent off to Algiers, there to 
await further orders. 

Then, when he had gone, Hafsa sought out Meu- 
nier. 

He was painting in his studio when word was 
brought to him, to his dismay, that she was below 
asking to see him; and he hurried down the rough 
stone steps of the interior to find her seated on the 
dokana by the open doorway, but mercifully out of 
range of vision of the street and veiled. She was 
alone. 

She had come to thank him, she said rather brok- 
enly, for all his goodness in protecting her. The of- 
ficer was gone at last, so she was free and had noth- 
ing more to fear. She might come back and be his 
model again now, might she not? She would do 
anything, anything for him. . . . The Sidi was not 
angry with her? . . . this timidly, for Meunier, 
standing in front of her, was very grave and silent. 

She had thrown back her melh'afa and stood up 
before him. Viewing her, with the background of 
recent events, in quite another aspect, he thought 
how beautiful she was. Yes, quite sufiiclently so to 
justify Balard's mad and cruel infatuation. If he 



HAFSA 109 

could only paint her just like this ! He sighed in- 
voluntarily. Of course it was impossible. If she 
did not know it, he must tell her so. He could not 
have her coming to his house. He pulled his pipe 
out of his mouth and played with it nervously. 

No, no ! of course he was not angry with her, he 
said gently, but only very . . . terribly . . . dis- 
tressed at what had happened to her. But . . . 
she must understand that everything was changed 
, . . quite changed. She could not be his model, 
or come to his house. . . . She was a woman now 
and must always be veiled before men . . . before 
himself. . . . 

He had not been looking at her while he spoke, 
but just then, to emphasize his words he turned and 
met her gaze, and . . . oh 1 . . . Great . . . 
Heaven! . , . 

He tried to speak but words failed him . . . and 
when he v/as able to pull himself together his voice 
sounded hoarse and hardly above a whisper. She 
must go back to her mother's house until . . . until 
. . . His voice failed again and hurriedly he mo- 
tioned to her to put her melh'afa around her, and by 
a sheer effort of will almost hypnotised her to move 
towards the door. Accustomed to obeying his every 
word and gesture when posing for him, in a half 
dazed and intuitive fashion she followed him into the 
street. 

The air and sunshine gave him courage, made her 
presence seem less intimate and he smiled now at her 
kindly and gravely, bidding her farewell. 



no A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

She never moved or spoke, so he left her there, 
returning to his studio by the httle flight of steps 
which led to the upper floor of his house. 

As he entered he caught sight of the last study he 
had made of her. Poor little Hafsa! Poor un- 
happy, unlucky little soul! With something that 
sounded almost like a sob, he took up the unfinished 
picture gently and, placing it behind some discarded 
canvases, turned its face towards the wall. 

Unable to work again, he wandered aimlessly 
about the room, cursing his own blindness and ab- 
sorption In his work; when, suddenly, the thought 
struck him to look out between the carved shutters 
which opened over the street. 

Hafsa was still standing where he had left her, 
Impassive, statuesque. 

" Was she never going? " he muttered Impa- 
tiently, a sense of irritation and dismay growing up 
within him. 

As if his words had really reached her, she turned 
immediately and he saw her pass out of the sunlight 
into the shadow of the Mosque. 

In another moment she was gone. 

April 4.th, 19 13. 

What a stir there has been In the town all day! 
Noise of tomtoms; wails of the qtidita and through 
and above all the din, the screams of the dancing 
girls. Wedding festivities on an unusually great 
scale must surely be afoot? 

The marriage is being celebrated of the daughter 



HAFSA III 

of Mohamcd-ben-Sayia, for which, It is rumoured, 
a large sum of money has been sent — no one quite 
knows from where or why ! 

So it is Hafsa they are marrying, on this long 
drowsy afternoon, to an Arab from Algiers. 



CHAPTER XI 

THE RITES FOR RAIN 

' Ici, par une singuliere disposition d' esprit, nous 
sommes tojours sur la marge du merveilleux." 
" Dans l'Ombre Chaude de l'Islam." 

March 2jth, 19 13. 

FOR a month, and more, we have enjoyed the 
delights and the beauties of springtime, the 
first day of which is fixed by the Arabs for 
the 27th of February. The fruit trees, peach, apri- 
cot, apple and almond have daintily blushed, or deli- 
cately whitened under the kiss of a passionate sun 
and look dellciously fragile and fairylike against the 
dense background a sombre mass of green palm trees 
affords them. It is ten days at least since their petals 
were ruthlessly plucked at and swept off by the chill 
breezes of evening: the fruit Is set now: summer is 
coming. In this last week Nature made haste to 
celebrate her great annual festival and during three 
days — of ill augur to man — the stones, the plants 
and the trees have been consummating their nuptials. 
The arid earth, bestrewn for awhile with showers 
of fruit blossom. Is now a more novel delight and a 
daily amazement: for everywhere, amongst rocks 
and stones, In all sorts of unlikely places, are spring- 



THE RITES FOR RAIN 113 

Ing up flowers, yellow, red, heliotrope, but mostly- 
shaded from mauve into purple. Near the grave- 
yards tiny irises bend and snap under one's feet — 
have not some Easterns christened them " Flowers 
of Death " ? — and the mignonette, which is so small, 
and so green and so shy that it has to be sought for, 
is there too; and grows as well on the racecourse, 
which lies over against the sand dunes, at the ap- 
proach to the town. 

Thither it was that I bent my steps on this very 
day of last month, on the fete of Melqa r rabi ^ and 
met little parties of women coming back to their 
homes, laden with baskets of odorant herbs they 
had gathered, which they gave me to sniff at; and 
which, for health's sake, it is good to eat as well as 
to smell at this season. 

The big plain by the racecourse was alive with 
young urchins, either watching or playing at Koura, 
with a ball of wood, or of rags bound together with 
string and long thick sticks, curving upwards and 
widening at the base. To make them, no other 
wood must be used but that of the palm tree : on this 
point, my informant, Abdallah, Is very insistent. He 
was there of course, and as usual full of importance 
explaining the game and overcome with surprise at 
my questions and that I should have already known 
of It, its name and Its reason ! For Koura Is by no 
means simply a sport and amusement: it has a re- 
ligious significance and Is often specially organised 
at other seasons of the year, if the earth should be 

1 First day of Spring. 



114 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

dry and the vegetation drooping and dying for want 
of the rain. 

The boys, divided into two camps, pushed the ball 
to and fro from one party to the other shouting the 
while, for on them it devolves thus to beat out, and 
frighten the djinns with a great noise : the bad little 
devils who would like to maintain a persistent 
drought and ruin the harvest. 

As a matter of fact our own modern football had 
its origin in an ancient agrarian rite, of which Koura 
is but a survival: and perhaps it might be wiser in 
England to encourage these clever little people for a 
time, who can at will control the clouds, instead of 
waging such continual warfare upon them. 

Whether on that first day of spring the Arab boys 
failed to perform their duty efficiently; whether they 
were too apathetic and did not put their hearts and 
their full strength into their games, who can say? 
Whatever the reason, one thing is quite certain, that 
the djinns have completely got the upper hand for 
the present and riot at will. Day after day passes: 
the sun blazes always, with not a cloud in a sky of 
the most exquisite azure and no sign of rain. 

Since last Monday the weather problem has begun 
to assume a very serious aspect, for about three 
o'clock each afternoon, as " a cloud that from some 
furnace strays " the sirocco has come up from out of 
the South and breathed hotly over a land already 
parched and fainting. Great whirlwinds of dust, 
and of sand from the shifting dunes, rise Into the air 



THE RITES FOR RAIN 115 

penetrating every crevice and chink; and the Arabs, 
with hdiks drawn up above their nostrils, even their 
faces almost enshrouded in white linen, seem more 
remote and mysterious than before. 

Last night a wave of excitement passed over the 
whole town and a climax was reached when the big 
auto arrived from Algiers soon after nine. There 
came back in It an ex-commissaire of Police, just out 
of jail where he had been spending a fortnight, at 
the Instigation, so It is said, of the Jews — the Jews 
who corner the grain when famine stalks abroad in 
the land ! 

Party feeling here runs very high at times and the 
Arabs, suffering badly from nerves, were worked up 
to a somewhat dangerous mood and determined to 
look upon the ex-commissaire as a martyr. For 
quite two hours previous to his arrival, the noise of 
flutes and of tomtoms had reached us from the cafe 
at the further corner of the Square, and the approach 
of the car was signalled by a march past, headed by 
the musicians, to the terminus where it would stop. 
Back the procession came again, greatly increased 
in numbers, making a terrific din, and the whole 
crowd clapping their hands In unison with the beat 
of the tomtoms. Squibs were being fired off in all 
directions : pandemonium seemed let loose : the dark 
Square was full of tall white figures, moving, march- 
ing, running. Preceded by swinging lanterns, the 
musicians reached the centre, and just where the 
light focussed I could see from my balcony two men 



ii6 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

fall Into each other's arms, part, embrace again, one 
raise a mefrek ^ horizontally above his head and 
both simultaneously break into a wild dance. 

Thus last night's ovation inaugurated the pre- 
scribed rites for the rain. 

About midmorning I hurried down to the race- 
course to find a crowd of men, old women and quite 
young children of both sexes already assembled for 
the zerda, the banquet of charity. The poorest of 
the poor were squatting on the plain, bunched up to- 
gether In little circular groups of six or eight each, 
helping themselves hungrily from the sahfa set In 
their midst which had been filled from great steam- 
ing cauldrons of meat and grain coloured orange 
with hot pepper. 

From a somewhat larger clump, of men only, 
came the beat of tomtoms which accompanied a low 
monotonous chant led by the oldest and most re- 
vered moii'ahhir In the town. "O God! give us 
rain! We Implore pardon, O God! The ear Is 
dry, O Master! give it to drink! " 

Their murmuring appeal was almost overpowered 
by the musicians of another group, where three men 
were playing on reed like flutes and others, raising 
their bnader high up above their heads, banged at 
them frenzledly, whilst one danced at intervals till 
his amulets on their long green cord swung round 
and hung down behind him. His example stimu- 
lated the efforts of two thickly veiled women who, 
with extended arms, hands turning Inwards and out- 

2 Thick stick. 



THE RITES FOR RAIN 117 

wards, were obviously flagging, till one flung herself 
into his close embrace. A darwish ^ rushed into 
the centre, swaying this way and that, leaping into 
the air, with no idea save one of continuous move- 
ment, till he, also exhausted, dropped like a log on 
the ground and lay still. An immense crowd looked 
on the while, mostly composed of men, but one 
corner was assigned to a number of little girls, all 
dressed in red, who bloomed close to the earth like a 
flower bed filled with dwarf roses, ringed round with 
statuesque figures of women, impassive and silent. 

In the pause that ensued a pan of charred sweet 
smelling wood was brought round, a symbol of puri- 
fication; and as the incense bearer threaded his way 
in and out through the crowd, there came across to 
us from that other group the continuous appeal: 
" O God! give us rain! Djeldjdla,^ that the widow 
may live! O God! give us rain! Give us rain! " 

Little handfuls of stones were picked up and flung 
far away over our heads on to the arid plain to let 
God see the hardness of the earth, so flintlike ! And 
above us always a blazing pitiless sun: not a cloud 
to temper the noonday heat : no sign of rain. 

In the afternoon therefore renewed efforts must 
be made to move God and his saints to mercy and 
forgiveness. Headed by the incense bearer and the 
musicians, a long procession trailed through the town 
and over the fields to the tombs. Three were vis- 
ited in turn before we came to a kouba set in a grove 

3 Male dancer (religious). 
* Golden drops. 



ii8 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

of prickly pear, with a high bank running along- 
side. Here the musicians stopped, leaning against 
the whitewashed walls and pressing two tiny girls 
into their service, who, with the best possible imi- 
tation, reproduced the dance of the women. They 
were very pleased with themselves, fantastic little 
creatures; much praised too for their performance 
and when it was over we all trooped off once more 
to the racecourse. 

Behind it, today, the hills were mountains of 
light and looked very far off, so that the armed 
horsemen, assembled in one long line stretching 
across the wide plain, seemed detached in a curious 
way from the landscape. Fronting towards the 
Grand Stand, side by side, stood two beautiful cam- 
els, proudly arching their sinuous necks, adorned 
near the head with wide bands of red velvet to 
match their trappings and the crimson cloths of the 
towering litters, in the strict seclusion of which the 
great ladies had travelled across the town. 

All the male inhabitants were streaming in from 
every direction, or squatting in groups on the neigh- 
bouring hillslopes when the Fort clock, far away in 
the distance, struck four, and the Cai'd with his 
small son rode on to the field. Last to arrive were 
the French officials, single file and at racing speed, 
followed by a blue winged cloud of Cavaliers du 
Makhzen; all that are left to us from a picturesque 
past. 

The fantasia began. For a long time I sat watch- 
ing the horsemen who, in pairs and in companies 



THE RITES FOR RAIN 119 

galloped over the plain, firing salute after salute to 
a cloudless horizon: then I slipped away from an 
atmosphere, surcharged with emotion and from my 
balcony looked out at the West. 

What an ominous sky, of a sudden, all streaked 
with tongues of angry orange red flame and — oh ! 
how strange ! — a great bank of black clouds gather- 
ing slowly, driven in by the wind towards the town. 

At their advent the fantasia must have ceased: 
horsemen rode past up the hill; fragments of the 
crowd drifted by: with a jangling of bells the two 
great camels, manifestly conscious of their precious 
burdens, stepped slowly and carefully through the 
Square. 

Still the inky mass was too high up, too far from 
earth: was passing . . . "O God! give us rain! 
The harvest withers I Send rain on that which 
Thou hast created! " The appeal had begun again; 
came now from the town; rose and fell; became a 
frantic persistent demand . . . has risen and fallen 
so for hours . . . "O God! give us rain . . . 
O God! give us rain! , . . Give us rain" . . . 

When evening comes it rains ! Praise be to God. 



CHAPTER XII 

NAILIA 

" La danse mauresque, dite danse du ventre^ 
a . . , par certaines attitudes lentes, une significa- 
tion de danse sacree qui vlent d'un Orient plus 
metaphysique." Isabelle Eberhardt. 

"Sous les palmiers du cafe maure, les danses 
sacrees des Ndilet" Victor Barrucand. 

" Ohj my beloved! Thou canst eclipse all rivals 
by the char7n of thy movements, by thy step proud 
and graceful as that of the kata^ and still more 
alluring" Arab Song. 

April 20th, 19 13. 

SEVENTY miles away from the Place of Hap- 
piness lies a little Arab town which has al- 
most lost its individuality and has been 
swamped, so to speak, by the military camp which 
hems it in and has surrounded it with high stone 
walls and armoured gates. 

There, even in April, the wind blows cold through 
its wide streets shaped like a cross, for It lies in the 
midst of the Saharien Atlas, that grand barrier of 
fissured gorges which divides Algeria from the des- 
ert: and though Djelfa is built in a depression, in 
the valley of the Oued Djelfa, it is little short of 

^ Desert partridge. 



NAILIA 121 

4,000 feet above sea level; is by no means unaccus- 
tomed to a fall of snow In winter, and sends on many 
an Icy blast to the oases of the Hauts-Plateaux. 

Although most uninteresting in itself, the village 
and its mosque outside the walls were a welcome 
sight to me when I caught my first glimpse of them, 
Ht up by April's red moon, which had veritably 
taken on a rosy hue from an horizon whose tints 
announced the speedy coming of the sun. For the 
best part of seventeen hours, stopping only when 
we changed horses and to drink strong black coffee 
at intervals In Isolated rest houses, I had been sit- 
ting on the box seat of a rough country cart beside 
a weird looking driver, blue clad even to the hood 
which enveloped his head, hugging a gun. Behind 
me, sheltered beneath a cover, were four Arabs and 
a Jew, all crouched up together and mindful of In- 
junctions that no portion of my more roomy place 
should be encroached upon by any one of them. 

At the end of the first stage of our journey our 
relations had been put on quite a friendly footing 
by my offer to pay for all those welcome little cups 
of coffee, which we drank In company, sitting by the 
wayside of a lovely pass amongst the mountains; 
and, in return, they were mindful of my comfort 
and even brought me hot cinders in a pan to warm 
my feet during the chill hours which precede the 
dawn. It was only at daybreak that they fell asleep, 
to my great joy, having wearied me out with a litany 
chanted by one or other of the four, to which the 
rest responded "Ehl" or "Ale I" at intervals; 



122 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

and, if by chance there were a pause, the Jew at 
once seized the opportunity to loudly say his prayers, 
interrupting them by a yell of terror, when the 
driver unexpectedly fired off his gun to the huge de- 
light of the Arabs, who were convulsed with laugh- 
ter at his fear. 

It may be that the devils had thus been kept at bay 
whilst we traversed the lonely steppe throughout 
the night watches, for there is nothing so effectual 
to keep off djinns as a continuous noise; but, person- 
ally, I should have been glad to take the risk. How- 
ever, after four o clock. Nature asserted herself 
and my companions slept. The horses dozed also, 
and it was only by dint of waking the driver about 
every ten minutes to urge them on that we made any 
progress at all; but my energy was evidently mis- 
taken; for he pulled up altogether, dismounted 
from his seat beside me and disappeared into a hut 
which stood a few paces off the road. 

After some time when I, also drowsy with the de- 
licious freshness of the air, must have been sound 
asleep, a voice shouting some sort of question in 
Arabic suddenly roused me from my slumbers and 
I called back in reply : — 

" Can you speak French? Do find the driver for 
me : he's in that hut. I beg of you to go and ham- 
mer at the door." 

To which appeal, a soldier on a bicycle responded 
with a cheery laugh, as he struck a match to light a 
cigarette and also to peer up at me : 

"All right, Madam! he's probably asleep, but 



NAILIA 123 

you're not so very far away and only due at seven. 
When he comes out, he's sure to hurry up the horses 
and you'll arrive all in good time I " 

In a moment he was gone, but our conversation 
had awakened my companions and they began to 
shout for the driver, who appeared presently with 
another man carrying a little tray with a long handle 
in the middle, round which were grouped some cups, 
and when I saw the hot coffee I quite forgot to scold, 
but took mine gratefully, and once more refreshed, 
we proceeded on our way. Not too quickly — - that 
would be altogether against the customs of the coun- 
try — for, by this time, we had come to pasture 
land where shepherds, guarding their flocks, and 
stray nomads hurried to meet us; to exchange greet- 
ings; ask for news and also, who was the roiimya 
and whither was she bound? 

Meanwhile the moon had paled to whiteness in 
the heavens and had disappeared before the stronger 
radiance of the sun and the larks were singing gaily 
as, punctually at seven, we drove into the gates of 
the little town which is one of the stages of the cara- 
van route to the M'Zab. 

The only other claim that Djelfa has to interest 
is as the capital, or more correctly, the headquarters 
of the Ouled Nail ; a great tribe, founded at the end 
of the 1 6th century by a famous saint, Sidi Nail, who 
came from the Sous. Over his descendants there 
still rests the mantle of his holiness and those in di- 
rect line from his son, Sidi Malik, are said to have 
the gift of miracles. It is, however, through their 



124 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

women that the Ouled Nail are notorious, for It has 
been the almost Invariable custom of the tribe to 
send forth their daughters to the towns of the oases 
to follow, in all honour and in the odour of sanc- 
tity, the oldest profession for women, outside mar- 
riage, universally recognised by the world. There 
are, now-a-days, members of the tribe who, having 
been in close touch with Europeans, voluntarily de- 
clare that the dancers are drawn only from amongst 
the lowest, and cultured Mussulmen vehemently 
deny that religion enters into the question at all. 
Nakhla, whose one-eyed unattractive old mother 
hailed from Djelfa, assured me that the life led by 
the Ouled Nail women was accounted to them for a 
shame; but when all has been said on the subject 
on both sides little doubt remains that the average 
Arabs hold some of them in high esteem and treat 
them with a respect they certainly v/ould not accord 
to their own wives. Nor have they any objection 
to marrying the dancers magnificently adorned with 
a dowry of massive, barbaric trinkets which are the 
earnings of their earlier days. 

They are richly attired in satin, or silk, or bro- 
cade of rose colour and pale blue, green and purple, 
or scarlet and gold, with long spangled veils, which 
depend from a diadem of blue and green enamelled 
silver, or a sokhah ^ brought low upon the forehead 
close to eyes rendered larger and more lustrous by 
the koh'eul which encircles them. Great earrings 
partly rest on glossy hair plaited over wool which 

2 Triple band of gold coins. 



NAILIA 125 

frames cheeks reddened with khalouk ^ where are 
tiny tatooed signs and crosses, repeated also on the 
brow and below the carmine tinted lips. Necks and 
breasts are covered with jewelled chains; their arms, 
half bare, half veiled in wing like sleeves of gauze 
or lace, are laden with great bracelets studded with 
silver nails; and wide khalkhal^ inlaid with cabo- 
chons, or coral, alluringly impede the progress of 
their steps. In all the towns of the oases they are 
constantly In evidence: no wedding or fete takes 
place withouftheir presence or their aid and amongst 
my last recollections of the Place of Happiness is 
the dance given at night in the Market Square by 
the women of the Ouled Nail. 

A cold night and dark, for the crescent moon, not 
yet many hours old, shyly vanishes for long inter- 
vals, her face discreetly veiled by drifting clouds 
which a chill breeze Is chasing towards the south. 

The Square lies In deep shadow, save for a large 
wide space where two great fires burn, throwing out 
jets of flame and showers of sparks that illumine the 
faces of the lads who feed them, lying luxuriously 
at their ease beside the welcome warmth. They form 
the basis of a triangle and at Its apex Is a group of 
men with flutes and tomtoms and a drum, squatting 
at one end of a long carpet which stretches out, be- 
tween the burning wood, down to the feet of a dense 
expectant crowd. 

* Khalouk cosmetic. 

* Anklets. 



126 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

In the remote background, close against the rail- 
ings of the gardens, brown feloiidji,^ raised on poles, 
form two awnings and the bright glare of acetylene 
falls fiercely on crouching figures enshrouded in dead 
white — wraiths driven in from the outer darkness, 
who have sunk in one long close line on rugs spread 
out upon the ground. 

Behind them stand, between the tents, a little 
group of Cavaliers de Makhzen and surrounding 
the enclosure now — their draperies pale yellow in 
the firelight — is a serried throng, — banked up — 
of silent men. The Cai'd's tall, portly form in 
bright red, ample robes moves to and fro across the 
empty space to little tables where are showy uni- 
forms of scarlet and pale blue. 

Servants appear with lighted candles which they 
set upon the earth in a long row before that wide 
white band of women, and hardly are they all in 
place and their pale glimmer flickering upward to 
meet the fiercer glare above, when the veils are sud- 
denly discarded and there flashes Into sight a quiv- 
ering mass of brilliant, gleaming dragon flies, green, 
scarlet, blue and pink with a shimmer of silver on 
their glittering wings and their heads afire with the 
radiance of red gold. 

The musicians, who have made the skins of their 
instruments taut by the heat of the fires, drown the 
faint rustle of silk and the chink, chink of bracelets 
and anklets, as two gorgeously dressed dancers pass 
over the row of footlights and advance down the cen- 

^ Tent coverings. 



NAILIA 127 

tre of that empty space, moving coquettishly, as does 
the desert ganga ^ to the rhythm of the measure set 
by bnader and flute. 

Slowly, almost reluctantly, with outstretched 
arms; with nervous hands, full of vitality and power 
that invite and repulse, little by little they reach the 
crowd: then turn, where the flames leap towards 
their long spangled lougas changing them to un- 
earthly hues of yellow and red rose. 

It is always the same story they tell, these women, 
repeated again and again and again : of allurement, 
of appeal, of passion that flares, of repulse that but 
stirs it the more; of pursuit, of a yielding consent. 

Suddenly the measure changes : is louder, quicker. 
Only one dancer stands there alone. She gleams 
like a glow worm : her form dark coloured and the 
sequins banding her head all aflame. Her feet in 
their jewelled fetters scarcely move forward: 'tis 
her body and arms are convulsed with the dance, and 
she waves a mendil slowly . . . slowly . . . 
winding it into tight folds in her hands, raising it 
with a backward gesture, making a bar of it, lower- 
ing it, loosening it, whirling it round before and be- 
hind her, till a wave of emotion surges over the 
watchers and the long line of women scream through 
their fingers . . . eoueeou . . . eoueeou . . . eoueeou 
. . . spurring her on. 

So the night passes. 

" As each scarce hour is hailed by the great 
clock " in the Fort above the gardens, that hitherto 

^ A sort of partridge. 



128 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

impassive silent crowd of Arab men stirs . . . 
moves . . . speaks . . . calls aloud for Lalla 
Cheliha, for the wonderful dancer who toys with 
souls. 

She alone still wears her melh'afa, which floats 
out behind her like great white wings and she keeps 
aloof from the dying embers in the shadows beyond 
the flames, which catch the gleam of her gold decked 
body beneath the transparency of her veil. 

An evil spirit beckoning . . . posturing . . . 
doomed to dance when all's dark in the world. 

She ceases and, with her, the music stops sud- 
denly : the fires by now have quite died down. Some 
stray figures approach the dancers and, at each cor- 
ner, break up their line. From thence comes the 
sound of harsh, mirthless laughter . . . but the rest 
of the crowd, like shades of dead Carmelite friars, 
drifts away silently into the gloom. 

Last to leave are the ghostly women, directing 
their steps once more towards the town. 

" Facili decensus Avernus ! " The clock strikes 
twelve. 



PART II 
IN THE M'ZAB 



CHAPTER XIII 

THE CARAVAN ROUTE TO THE m'zAB 

" The Beni-M'Zab, with their confederation of 
seven Towns . . . who count their palms by the 
hundred thousand and bring us their dates, the best 
in the world" 

April, 19 13. 

PROPERLY speaking, the great caravan route 
to the M'Zab begins where the railway 
from Algiers comes to a finish for the time 
being; that is, at a dull French village lying in a val- 
ley, with hills all round and a dry hot looking bank 
of sand rising almost immediately at the back of its 
principal street. 

Fortunately, for the sake of the landscape, be- 
hind that unpromising barrier and soaring above it, 
is a group of irregular mud houses which constitute 
the picturesque and real Boghari ! Curious little 
Arab town ! Not a straight line to be seen : every- 
thing and everybody on a slant, it might well be re- 
christened the ksar ^ of a hundred steps, for the as- 
cent is more easily made by them, than by the track 
on the further side. At the base of the incline, they 
are hardly more than the indentations of countless 

^Town village; headquarters of a tribei 

13s 



132 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

feet, naked and shod, which have passed that way; 
but they become much wider and broader, being evi- 
dently constructed by hand and graduated in the cen- 
tre of the hilly street; finally, they narrow and grow 
steep at its very top. 

In some of the shops, all on different levels, which 
edge the upper stairway on either side, their door- 
ways, outlined with tiles adorned with arabesques, 
jewellers were at work fashioning trinkets for the 
daughters of Nail installed in the ksar. In others 
again, piles of travelhng boxes were being decorated 
with flowers painted in crude reds and blues : all the 
designs extremely conventional, for Arab art rarely 
wanders beyond the realms of geometry. 

Elsewhere, and especially in a large square com- 
partment, which helped to form a projecting corner 
on the hill, M'Zabites were seated on the ground 
with their wares lining the walls and heaped up be- 
side them on the floor. They had beautiful carpets 
for sale and embroidered leather luxuries, for Bog- 
hari is a trading town of some importance: a mer- 
cantile halfway house between the fertile country, 
the flowery land, which lies around Algiers and 
Blida, and those desolate steppes, which must be 
traversed before it is possible to reach the strange 
unique cities of the South. 

For centuries the Republic of the M'Zab enjoyed 
an almost splendid isolation; but lately enterprise 
has done much to bridge the gulfs of difficulty and 
distance; and what the motor car has begun, the aer- 
oplane will no doubt shortly finish. 



CARAVAN ROUTE TO M'ZAB 133 

Already, from Boghari to Djelfa and from Djelfa 
to Laghouat, the automobile-post has curtailed the 
journey by fifty hours: taking eight hours (broken 
by a night's rest) instead of fifty-eight in the archaic 
diligence, whose days are numbered even for the 
Arabs themselves. 

After my long slow drive to Djelfa, the rapidity 
with which the next stage was accomplished — not 
to mention the comfort — made me fancy myself 
again in Europe; but when Laghouat was actually 
reached and we passed beneath the arches of its 
gates — oh ! bewildering transitions of this most be- 
wildering country ! — had the djinns whirled me ofi 
to the Far East? to India? No, they had evidently 
transplanted an oriental town on to the south slope 
of the Sahara Atlas mountains and, to justify their, 
freakishness, had made it, without and within the 
city walls, one of the most beautiful oases of the 
Little Desert. 

Beyond the eastern gate and looking to the right, 
where the river flows through a wide plain which 
stretches into the sky, there comes to the mind an 
illusion of a vast sea beyond this mass of sand. 
Here the eye can reach to the horizon, but, to the 
northwest, a chain of hills partially shuts out the 
view. They stand apart at first, then join low down 
as if, with their greater strength of rock and stone 
they sought to shield the girdle of luxuriant palms; 
that verdant band, unclasped at either end, which 
holds within its midst a little town. 

The gardens are themselves shut in by great mud 



134 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

walls, with high patches added here and there, so 
jealous are their owners of their beauties and fearful 
to display them. Their doors are frequently so low 
that one must bend and crouch to enter, if by lucky 
chance they open from within, or stand ajar. 

It Is a deserted region, the maze of tiny paths 
which Intersect and separate this wealth of greenery, 
where the passer-by misses his way, time and again, 
gazing up at the marvellous growth which o'ertops 
the envious brown walls. Great tufted crests tower 
defiantly above them and even fall upon the barriers, 
breaking them by a great length of trunk, to be 
promptly shorn of Its graceful plumes. The fig 
trees, more pliable and gentle, bend over gracefully 
and fling a welcome shade athwart the sunny lanes; 
whilst apricots, as yet unripe, and the vivid scarlet 
blossoms of the pomegranate hang temptingly, low 
down on the forbidden side. 

At last there opens out a wider space with houses, 
which, not long since, have obviously seen much bet- 
ter days; but now, in front of them, there Is a busy 
scene, a washing ground, filled v/Ith dark skinned 
negresses, heavy eyed, strong, wringing out gar- 
ments from the water of a little network of canals. 
Behind them rises a great rock, with barracks crown- 
ing It, but the bareness of the tawny coloured stone 
is softened by high acacias, which line Its base. 
Though the seed has already formed and hangs In 
golden drops, the trees are still In blossom: their 
flowers show a touch of purple in each heart, but 



CARAVAN ROUTE TO M'ZAB 135 

the petals are fading quickly from pale mauve into 
a shadowy transparent white. 

The walls close up again quite suddenly and mys- 
terious figures flit along the narrow paths, for close 
by lies the congested native quarter of the town: 
also a maze of lanes, but with low huts on either side 
and little shops and children playing in the dust, 
making toy pots and dishes out of mud. 

Here live the descendants of the ungrateful sons 
of Laghouat who were lucky enough to escape the 
awful judgment prophesied by their saintly founder. 
They had importuned him to help them against the 
inhabitants of El-Afisa, who continually harassed 
them, and they promised the M'rabet a large sum of 
money If their enemies could be destroyed through 
his Intervention with " Him Who has power." ^ 

At length SidI El-Hadj-Aissa yielded to their so- 
licitations and In answer to his prayers, " He Who 
commands " ^ sent a fearful tempest, which raged 
over the neighbouring ksar. Hailstones fell, as 
large as pigeons' eggs, beating on the houses and 
wrecking the gardens. Date palms were hurled to 
the ground: flocks of sheep and goats, dispersed over 
the country, perished. When the storm lifted the 
whole town was In ruins, full of dead men, women 
and children stifled by the clouds of dust and sand 
which had enveloped them. 

The Beni-Laghouat were now safe from further 
attack, but directly they were In the enjoyment of 

2 One of the ninety-nine names of Allah. 



136 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

their full measure of security, they forgot their obli- 
gations to El-Hadj Ai'ssa, and entirely neglected to 
fulfill their share of the contract. 

The saint had ever loved and treated them as his 
own children: had never failed them when danger 
came nigh the ksar: had lavished his advice and 
help upon them : had prayed for them to " Him 
Who giveth all." 2 

Now their falseness, their greed and their ingrat- 
itude roused within him an immeasurable wrath and 
scorn, so that he cursed the people of Laghouat and 
their beautiful city and prophesied its fall. 

Many years were to roll by before that terrible 
punishment was accomplishecf : before the French 
came to place their cannon within the shadow of the 
kouba, where the dead saint had been laid to rest, 
on an eminence which commands the Arab town : but 
time is as nought for the things that are already 
written and in the hour of his bitterness and sorrow 
the gift of vision was granted to El-Hadj-Aissa : he 
foresaw the triumph of the Christian and the down- 
fall of the Turk. 

The women of Laghouat have mostly chosen to 
enshroud themselves in melah'af of a sombre shade 
of blue, such as the Old Masters loved to paint; and 
when their draperies fall apart, showing white round 
brow and throat, seen from afar their wearers might 
very well belong to some new order of the Little Sis- 

- One of the ninety-nine names of Allah. 



CARAVAN ROUTE TO M'ZAB 137 

ters of the Poor. What made them choose that 
shade above all others? passed often through my 
mind, until the sky gave me my answer one Sabbath 
afternoon, as I stood by the doorway of the Mosque, 
listening to the continuous murmuring chant of men; 
an unbroken drowsy hum borne towards me from 
within. Here a crescent tops the single minaret, 
but not a hundred yards away rise two towers, with 
a cross between, of that other sanctuary where 
women, clad In snowy robes,^ their heads covered 
with fine linen, sing praises to the glory of their God. 

Apart from prayer and praise no sound disturbed 
the stillness. The little town beneath the palm 
trees' shade seemed wrapped in a sweet dream of 
gladness and of peace. The air was fragrant with 
the warm heavy scent of roses from the villa gardens 
behind silver painted gates. In the long avenue to 
the southwest outside the walls. 

How fascinating It was and how loth I felt to go, 
but each successive day was just a little hotter than 
the last and my goal lay a hundred and thirty miles 
nearer to the great Desert, the throne of the Sun. 

It behoved me, therefore, to send my letter of in- 
troduction to the Commandant and to enquire If he 
would permit me to travel to Ghardaia all on my 
own wild lone, as I was not timid and quite prepared 
to do so. Whereupon he called upon me and most 
politely and decidedly said " No ! " He would, 
however, send me an orderly of the Bureau Arabe, 

2 ScEurs Blanches. 



138 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

to accompany me, and arrange for a place to be re- 
served in the coupe of the diligence for myself, and 
one on the roof for my cavalier on any day I chose 
to start. 

On the following afternoon, at four o'clock, Kaha 
and I left Laghouat 

The body of a Sahara diligence is divided into two 
compartments : that in front can accommodate three 
very small and very short people ; into the one be- 
hind and on the roof Arabs and M'Zabites are 
packed like sardines in a barrel; and on my return 
journey there were sixteen of them including my 
cavalier and the driver, as well as merchandize and 
baggage ! 

My French fellow passenger in the coupe was armed 
to the teeth, not knowing " what might arrive " as he 
carefully explained, setting up a gun in the corner 
and placing a revolver on the ledge in front of him. 
No doubt it is always well to be ready for any emer- 
gency. It sometimes wards off danger, and all sorts 
of alarming stories are afloat about murdered M'Za- 
bites, attacks on commercial travellers and what not : 
but I may as well say at once that during all that 
long journey of forty hours through a desolate coun- 
try, we had no unpleasant experiences whatever, be- 
yond the awful jolting on the rough Sahara road 
which, at times, is little better than a stony track. 
As most of life's difficulties and discomforts have 
their attendant compensations, what, after all, is a 
shaking compared to seeing the glory of the dawn 
when it breaks and illumines those vast steppes, 




H 



CARAVAN ROUTE TO M'ZAB 139 

where sound is not? " In those arid wastes, that 
land of bare rock, there is something which Kves 
and has being: it is the hours. Every dawn and twi- 
light is a drama." When they approached, those 
exquisite hours, the diligence would stop and all the 
Mussulmen, Arabs and M'Zabites, descend and 
scatter themselves at little intervals, over the 
adjoining landscape, to pray. Birds of passage in 
a land without water, they used the dry earth for 
their ablutions and extending their open palms be- 
yond their knees, prostrated themselves gently and 
humbly till their foreheads touched the dust. It is, 
above all, the prayer of fedjer ^ that is acceptable 
to Allah. In the towns and cities of the Mussulman 
world, about an hour before it is possible to discern 
a white thread from a black one, a cry of warning 
breaks through the stillness and darkness of the 
night. " It is better to pray," call the Muezzins ^ 
from the minarets: "It is better to pray than to 
sleep ! " and the faithful are ready to welcome with 
their prayers the first announcement of the splendid 
coming of the sun. He was flooding all the land with 
his glory when at eight o'clock we drove into the en- 
closure of the famous caravanserai of Tilrempt. 

Famous, that is to say, amongst travellers In the 
M'Zab who have enjoyed its hospitality and its won- 
derful varied menu and cooking of seven courses, 
hundreds of miles away in the interior. Praises are 
heaped on the jolly, genial host and cook combined, 

* Prayer at dawn. 
° Criers. 



140 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

who is obviously as delighted with them as a child 
that has planned and carried through a great sur- 
prise. They have to be recorded in a book kept 
expressly for the purpose and many of his guests 
have even burst forth into rhyme ! 

The six hours for refreshment and repose passed 
all too quickly in that little oasis with its park of 
terebinths, which have been so aptly called " the 
providential trees of a country without shade," for 
their thickly covered boughs branch out all round 
making great green parasols, which give a welcome 
shelter upon every side. 

At two o'clock we left these joys behind us and 
were again en route: a more dreadful journey even 
than that of the preceding afternoon and night. The 
men walked for long intervals at a stretch, perhaps 
partly preferring a promenade to their cramped 
quarters in the diligence, but also to save the horses 
who could just drag the vehicle and me over the 
stony, hilly track; powerful, well-cared- for beasts 
though they were and would need to be. 

Matters mended somewhat after midnight as we 
were approaching Berrlan; the first of the seven con- 
federated towns of the M'Zab, built in the 17th 
century on a chalky limestone plateau. When we 
arrived only the frogs were awake, chanting a glad 
and noisy song, but the cafe maure soon opened its 
doors and Kaha brought out a bench for me to sit 
upon, covering it with his humous. He treated me 
throughout the journey and during my visit like a 
precious parcel delivered into his keeping by his 



CARAVAN ROUTE TO M'ZAB 141 

Commandant, though I fear occasionally he found 
me an anxious charge. 

When it was daylight again, from my little win- 
dow I looked over a more weird and impossible 
country than ever. Not a living thing: not a green 
leaf. It might have been a battle ground for de- 
mons and giants in some prehistoric age, who fought 
each other with stones and huge masses of rock, 
hurling them from engines of war not yet known to 
man. To my idea, the approaches to Gharda'ia are 
so strange as to be terrifying. Some such scene as 
this Dore saw, or imagined, when he painted his 
" Entree a I'lnferno : " a land from which God had 
hidden His face. Though the awful jolting had 
ceased and we found ourselves once more on a well 
constructed road, with a wall between us and the 
abyss, its circular windings seemed to sustain, rather 
than remove the first impressions of that steep de- 
scent. Certainly, it was beyond all possibility of be- 
lief that we were within easy reach of a Promised 
Land; of a beautiful oasis with its great green forest 
of nearly two hundred thousand palms ! 



CHAPTER XIV 

THE ELECT OF ALLAH 

' Praise be to God Who has taught us when we 
•were ignorant and Who, from amongst His many 
creatures, chose us as His elect." 

Dogma of the People of Ghardaia. 

In this world it is not possible to be generous 
with a small fortune and the only real fortune ob- 
tainable is that gained in commerce." 
Abou Yakoub Youcef ben Brahim ben Mennad. 

May, 1 9 13. 
Y first day at Ghardaia was spent in bed. 
We had hardly arrived when Kaha, as 
fresh as paint, worried me persistently for 
my letter of introduction to the Commandant, until 
I told him that nothing in this world would make me 
write a letter until six o'clock that evening. In the 
meantime he could report himself; notify our ar- 
rival; in short, do anything and everything he 
pleased, provided he left me alone. The welcome 
sound of his retreating footsteps along the balcony 
followed this announcement and I heard no more of 
him until the evening; when my note and its enclos- 
ure brought a prompt and kind offer to place another 
Cavalier of the Bureau at my disposal, as guide, who 

142 





3 
< 



iis.* " 



THE ELECT OF ALLAH 143 

had been a resident of the M'Zab from boyhood and 
knew this group of cities well. 

Of the seven confederated towns, Berrian and 
Guerrara are far away to the north and northeast; 
but five of them lie within a few kilometres of each 
other, enclosed by a belt of rocks, with openings at 
either end for the passage of the river on which de- 
pends their lives. Furthest from Ghardaia, beside 
an elbow of the oued,'^ where it turns southward, 
El-Ateuf was founded nine centuries ago. It is the 
oldest of these sister cities and Bou-Noura is the pret- 
tiest, having the appearance of a mediaeval town 
hemmed in by palms. It is, unfortunately, tucked 
away, out of sight, round a corner of projecting 
rocks and cannot be seen even from the lofty watch 
tower of the sacred city which lies on the right bank 
of the river. The inhabitants of Beni-Isguen have 
built their town up the side of the mountain, shut- 
ting in their holiness and vast wealth with immense 
crenelated walls of stone, outside an earlier enclos- 
ure, of which some parts remain. Melika, con- 
structed entirely on the crown of the oposite hill, has 
lost the title to chief sanctity, which it once enjoyed, 
when it guarded the treasure of the whole Confeder- 
ation in the great cellars beneath its Mosque. Now 
its interests are bound up with those of the largest 
city, Ghardaia, not a mile away, its houses massed 
closely together; a series of arcades and terraces, 
shaded from white to brown, rising tier upon tier 
as in an amphitheatre, till they touch the base of a 

1 River. 



144 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

broken pyramid, which stands alone on the very 
summit and dominates the town. 

When high market is held here on Fridays, the 
main road, running right through the valley, which 
connects these five hill cities, presents a curious and 
amusing spectacle. Hundreds of the inhabitants 
from each — men only, be it understood — pour 
along it in a continuous stream. Many, of course, 
are on foot, but the wealthy merchants get astride 
tiny bourriqiiots, which are almost hidden from view 
by the portly persons of their owners, bundled up 
in clothes. Four little thin brown legs trot along 
unsteadily, with a great foot thrust out on either side 
close to the ground, and presumably arrive at their 
destinations, though this would appear sometimes 
an impossible feat even for an Algerian donkey. 

The M'Zabite has a type all his own, as charac- 
teristic and recognisable as that of the Jew. Though 
originally of Berber descent, he resembles neither 
the Kabyle of the north, the Arab of the Hauts- 
Plateaux, nor indeed any of the other dwellers in 
North Africa. Short and stout, with a round fat 
face, thick nose, wide and coarse mouth, he is by no 
means a beauty. His complexion too is pale with 
the unwholesome tinge induced by a sedentary life : 
moreover he is untidy and seems to pay no heed to his 
appearance or attire. 

Kaha, tall and muscular, with his finely cut fea- 
tures, carefully trimmed beard and his air of a 
dandy, whose socks are chosen to the exact match of 
the cords which confine his turban, was a great and 



THE ELECT OF ALLAH 145 

pleasing contrast to this crowd; and Lackdor too, in 
a dark blue burnous edged with red flung jauntily 
over one shoulder. 

Feeling extremely well guarded and secure be- 
tween the two of them, I also went to market; 
through narrow, crowded, hilly streets, till we ar- 
rived at a large open square thronged with men, 
mules, camels, donkeys and merchandize all mixed 
up together in a seething inextricable mass and hardly 
elbow room anywhere. We managed to struggle 
through as far as the Ca'id's office and after I had 
been presented, he allowed me to go upstairs to a 
large room, where doubtless many weighty affairs 
are settled; and from its windows I was able to sur- 
vey this concourse of men and beasts, whilst Kaha 
admired himself in the looking glass on the wall be- 
hind me. 

When our entertainments palled, we sallied forth 
again to climb more streets and passages so narrow, 
that I had to close my sunshade to pass through; 
growing steeper and steeper till we reached the sanc- 
tuary, which crowns the height, the doors of which 
were inexorably closed to me. Just without the pre- 
cincts was one of the surprising wells, which, at the 
very top of these high rocks of the M'Zab, are sunk 
into the earth, 150 feet perhaps; and anxiously 
watched. from this month onward through the trop- 
ical summer, for, if the water fail — ah ! what mis- 
ery that means! Within a stone's throw was the 
chamber, where the faithful perform their ablutions 
before prayer, with dozens of jars waiting to be 



146 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

filled from the well without. Then we wandered 
round some passages to the foot of the strange min- 
aret the M'Zabites erect above their mosques wher- 
ever they may build them. The winding steps were 
very worn by the frequent passage of the criers who, 
from the darkness which precedes morning till night 
falls again, ascend and descend that broken stairway 
to make known the hours of prayer and announce the 
greatness of the one and only God. 

It is a long climb to the very top and a strange 
vista looking down on Ghardaia ; a town of eight 
thousand souls and yet not one of them visible on the 
innumerable terraces ; and its streets concealed by a 
mass of masonry: it might be a city of the dead. 
Facing It lie vast burial grounds for the strangers 
that die within its gates; across to the left rises the 
sacred city clasped in a girdle of stone; alongside, 
Melika with a steep ascent before its first dwelling 
can be reached. Three unique cities, unlike, and yet 
more or less facsimiles of each other: an agglomera- 
tion of houses, arcades, terraces, wells, mosque, pyr- 
amid and M'Zabites : over all a burning sun. 

His fierce rays, concentrated on all this rock and 
stone, reflect their heat; wrap the three cities in a 
sheet of flame; make white terraces dazzling with 
their brightness; deepen the shades of yellow, turn- 
ing them to gold; play about the little pink washed 
kouba in the valley, till its walls are tinted rose. 

It Is dedicated to Abd-el-Kadr, the saint pre-emi- 
nent of Islam, the jolliest ouali^ In Paradise, with a 

2 Saint. 



THE ELECT OF ALLAH 147 

turn for practical joking, even after his admission to 
that abode of bhss. Rumours, which had spread be- 
yond the limits of this world and reached his ears, of 
the fame of another m'rabet and of a zaou'ia he had 
established, aroused the dead saint's curiosity. Anx- 
ious to assure himself of the validity of these claims 
to greatness, he borrowed his soul and enclosed it in 
the body of a poor scholar. Thus disguised, Abd- 
el-Kadr presented himself at the College founded by 
Abd-el-Aziz and with some difficulty, for by reason 
of its celebrity it was very full, he gained admission. 
The better to act his part and not arouse the slight- 
est suspicion of his real identity, the saint played end- 
less pranks on the unfortunate master, making the 
poor man's life a perfect burden to him. Day after 
day this went on, until at last matters came to a cli- 
max when the unruly scholar was told to prepare the 
evening meal for the whole College : a duty each one 
took in turn. Abd-el-Kadr flatly refused ; but though 
the master was very angry at his rudeness, he fully 
expected his order would be obeyed. However, 
when he found at the last moment that nothing was 
ready; not even a fire, or wood, beneath the three 
stones on the hearth, for the first time he lost all self 
control and began to beat the saint. The latter at 
once put his right leg under the big pot and set it 
alight with a lamp as if It were a log. Hey ! presto ! 
supper was ready: the most delicious coiiscoiisou that 
ever was cooked. Naturally the whole College im- 
mediately realised that this was a great personage 
they had unknowingly harboured In their midst. 



148 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

Everybody was quite overcome. Abd-el-Aziz apolo- 
gised humbly for his master : the latter grovelled on 
his own account and escaped with a reproof. Much 
tried man I How relieved he must have been when 
his wonder working, saint scholar took his departure 
once more to the realms of the blest ! 

After inspecting the inside of the little kouba, 
which had the flag of Islam and some cretonne on 
the walls by way of decoration, Lackdor invited me 
to coffee at his home, which lay just across the road 
In the foreign quarter of the town. Kaha was only 
allowed to accompany us to within a hundred yards 
of the house and the younger man, but lately married, 
took good care to see him safely seated on a stone 
projection by the roadside, before he went ahead to 
knock at his own door with the warning cry of 
" Roumya! " 

After the sordid poverty-stricken dwellings I had 
visited in the Place of Happiness, this was a minia- 
ture palace; but as comfort and prosperity by no 
means always bring contentment in their wake. Lack- 
dor was avowedly dissatisfied with his lot In life and 
had America In his mind's eye as a possible Eldorado. 
His father, a delightful refined-looking old Arab, 
had in his time travelled all over the south of Al- 
giers and Constantine and northwards to Lyons, so 
perhaps there is a nomadic strain In the family; 
though the son more nearly resembles his stout, dark 
eyed mother, who was seated in state, on a chair, 
dressed in a neglige she called a roha. She and her 
daughter-in-law, like the other women in the M'Zab, 



THE ELECT OF ALLAH 149 

whose combined earnings have been estimated at 
i2 8,000 a year, were industrious workers and con- 
tributed their share towards the maintenance of the 
home. She showed me a burnous, just completed, 
of a pretty brown shade rather affected by the 
M'Zabites, which had been daintily finished with 
stitching in pale pink silk and was priced at sixty 
francs. 

Lackdor's pretty, gentle, young wife half knelt, 
half sat on the ground beside the great frame on 
which the first strands of a bidi ^ were being 
stretched by herself and another woman. She 
smiled a little timidly now and again at her some- 
what unamiable l6rd, who ignored her after point- 
ing her out to me by way of introduction. 

Whilst the little negress servant prepared the cof- 
fee-, we inspected the chickens and goats which, in 
this household, did not live with the family, but in 
a tidy yard wired in to prevent them from wander- 
ing into the adjoining sitting hall. Round the lat- 
ter ran a gallery off which were sleeping quarters. 
Above again, the usual terrace with a view of the 
mountains to the north; the road to Laghouat; and, 
In the immediate foreground, Kaha's picturesque 
blue clad figure patiently awaiting our return. 

When we joined him the sun was setting. Moun- 
tain and valley and sky were suffused with a soft 
luminous glow. The air was close and hot: even 
on a little plateau above the valley of the shadow 
of death, the graveyards of Jews and Arabs facing 

3 A very fine burnous. 



150 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

Ghardaia, there seemed not a breath. In each 
brown pyramid above the cities appeared simultane- 
ously the white figure of a crier. The appeal, which 
always seems so strangely pathetic, barely reached 
our ears, but as it ended and the muezzins vanished 
my two cavaliers bowed themselves in prayer. Kaha 
never failed in his religious duties and was so or- 
thodox a follower of the Prophet that nothing would 
persuade him to find me a sorceress or a magician: 
someone, for example, who would bring the moon 
down into a sahfa, which terrifying spectacle I am so 
anxious to witness. Every time the subject was 
broached, he would look very grave, shake his head 
slowly and say: "It is forbidden. Why do you 
wish to see it? To learn to do it yourself? " 

Lackdor was not hampered by these scruples, but 
unfortunately the only lunar witch lived twenty miles 
away and there were difficulties about reaching her 
abode in the middle of the night: also, some doubts 
had been thrown on her ability to work this won- 
der. Finally, I had to content myself with a seance 
at the dwelling of a negress in the town itself, accom- 
panied by Lackdor only. Kaha begged to be ex- 
cused: he wished to purchase a hat as the sun was 
exceedingly powerful : much hotter than at Laghouat. 

One morning, therefore, I found myself some- 
where in the poorest precincts of Ghardaia, outside 
a low wooden door which Lackdor tried in vain to 
open. At last he gave up the attempt, knocked with 
a stone and called out loudly, " Masouda^ Ma-- 
souda ! " 



[THE ELECT OF ALLAH 151 

Presently there appeared at the entrance a tall 
rather bent old negress, as nearly approaching a mon- 
key in looks as ever human being could. We fol- 
lowed her down a narrow passage to a space at the 
end open to the sky, with the sunlight playing on the 
further wall and reaching out towards a corner 
where another negress crouched in shadow, sur- 
rounded by a semi-circle of big balls of brown wet 
mud. Near her, in the uneven ground, was a pool 
of very dirty water and beside it a brazier with live 
coal, on which rested a long handled spoon contain- 
ing molten lead. Everything had been prepared 
for our arrival and I seated myself on a flight of 
steps with Lackdor at my feet, telling him to ask 
the negress what would happen to him in the future. 

From a little niche in the wall of this weird abode 
she took a piece of mutton fat and dividing it into 
five, put the little bits on to the spoon and set a light 
to them. The other negress gave her five seeds 
(coriander perhaps?) out of a piece of red rag 
and these also were dropped into the flame. Mut- 
tering some sort of incantation to herself, the witch 
held the spoon over the brazier: then, plunged it 
into the pool of water, eagerly watching the lead as, 
hissing like a living thing, it spread itself out, curled 
up, bent over, stiffened and was still. 

What passed was quite unintelligible to me, but 
judging from Lackdor's expression and such por- 
tions as he translated, most satisfactory. For the 
sake of his household, of which assuredly he is the 
pivot, I hope that the hands of the little son, that is 



152 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

to be born, will be strong enough to hold him in 
the M'Zab and prevent his thoughts and himself 
from straying into the far away Western World. 

Amongst other visions, the negress had said she 
saw Lackdor conducting me through the largest 
M'Zabite cemeteries, so we decided to fulfil the 
prophecy forthwith and, on our way, picked up Kaha 
at the shop, where he was still engaged in purchas- 
ing his hat. It was a wonderful affair: very high, 
of cream coloured straw with a diagonal pattern in 
red ascending both sides to the crown, and the brim 
lined with three cornered pieces of red and green 
stuff sewn together with gold thread. Tilted at a 
fascinating angle, it made him look so rakish as to 
be almost unrecognisable. Really I felt relieved 
that, despite the intensity of the sun's rays, he gen- 
erally elected to carry it, attached by a leather strap, 
In the middle of his back where it was a great orna- 
ment and he, his usual staid and solemn self. The 
bargaining had been a long and arduous affair for 
the M'Zabites know their business well and, with all 
their reputation for probity, they have a strong com- 
mercial Instinct inherited for generations. They 
are very active and laborious, and even in byegone 
days when the religious persecutions of the Arabs 
gave them no safe outlets northward for their trade, 
they managed to penetrate nevertheless to Tunis 
and to the Tell : southward they went to the Soudan 
and trafficked in slaves. 

In 1853 th^ French entered into a treaty with the 
dwellers in the M'Zab and for nearly thirty years 



THE ELECT OF ALLAH 153 

the seven cities were merely a Protectorate of 
France; but greatly as these merchants of the south 
valued their independence, continual strife of par- 
ties was bringing ruin and they welcomed the se- 
curity to their persons and goods afforded by a for- 
eign administration. Under it they have acquired 
the monopoly of trade, it may be said, all over Al- 
geria. Few towns know them not as shopkeepers; 
but wherever they may be, as soon as they have 
amassed a little fortune, back they come with their 
gains, to spend their last days amongst their co- 
religionists and be buried in the M'Zab. 

" There are more dead than living at Gharda'ia " 
has passed into a saying, the truth of which is fully 
attested by the immense number of graves in the 
many burial grounds, which surround the base of the 
town. Each sect has its own cemetery: in one are 
buried the descendants of the very earliest inhabit- 
ants: in another are the nazils, those who joined the 
Confederation at a later date. Elsewhere are dis- 
sentients on this, or that, point of dogma, but what- 
ever may be the differences, religious or otherwise 
of the living, these are hardly apparent in the dis- 
position of the dead. Only the Jews in the valley 
are shut in by tombstones with names and dates in- 
scribed. The rich M'Zabites lie beneath fragments 
and whole jars of pottery that are green, the colour 
of the verdure which these cities lack. Sometimes 
a pretty glass cup is sacred to the use and memory 
of the dead, who drank from it before he passed 
over to the other shore; but mostly the heaps of 



154 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

brown earth are bare, rising up the hill, tier upon 
tier, as do the houses of this amphitheatre. 

In old days the tolbas * took care to erect in each 
graveyard a large platform of stone masonry to 
which the faithful brought donations in kind — 
great sacks of dates, of figs; jars of butter, of water 
for the Mosques and for the clergy. Now, my 
guides told me, they are used for prayer. 

In the large cemetery dedicated to Amml-Said-ben- 
Ali beneath an overhanging projection of rock close 
to a djemmd, Lackdor pointed out a curious collec- 
tion of small knotted bundles containing hair, placed 
there, so he said, by expectant mothers. If he were 
entirely correct, the sacrifice was made to ensure 
health and ward off evil and misfortune of any kind 
soever. It is quite as likely, however, that some at 
least were offerings after illness as a means of puri- 
fication; for it is held that the malady which remains 
in the hair is absorbed by the sacred force of the 
dead if the hair is cut and placed by a grave. Even 
in health it is desirable to either bury it, as well as 
nail parings, or put them In some spot so sacred that 
no enemy will dare to carry them away; for every- 
thing that has touched a body partakes of Its per- 
sonality and cut hair and nails remain always In 
sympathy with the individual and might be juggled 
with by sorcerers to the awful detriment of their 
former possessor. 

As a variant of these customs, the Jewish women 
of the M'Zab save their hair combings and making 

* Clergy. 



THE ELECT OF ALLAH 155 

up a little packet throw It into a rivulet, believing 
that the contact of the dead strands with the fresh 
living waters will preserve for them their woman's 
crown of glory. 

From the graveyards we walked on to the bed of 
the river: an Immense wide stretch of golden sand, 
with a clump of wells in the foreground and the 
crests of feathery branches showing clear against the 
sky. The river should flow in autumn and mid- 
winter: whether it does, or does not, decides the 
fortunes and the happiness of the M'Zab for a 
whole year. Not a drop of that precious liquid is 
allowed to be lost: the current is diverted into in- 
numerable canals and water-courses. A large por- 
tion of the population spend all their lives In water- 
ing the gardens: In superintending and leading the 
camels, the mules and the donkeys which raise great 
skins out of the wells. Their contents bring life to 
the fruit trees : the figs, apricots and pomegranates ; 
to the vine which spreads from palm to palm ; to the 
beans and the pumpkins, lastly to the forests of date 
palms, all and ever athirst beneath the scorching 
rays of an eternal sun. 

This was my last, my most beautiful vision of 
Ghardaia. 



CHAPTER XV 

THE INTERPRETER 

"" Mahomet said, ' I suggest, I comjnand you to 
cherish your wives . . . for they are your captives, 
your prisoners, 

"For thousands of years the devil and man have 
combined against Eve." Perron. 

"Mr. Asquith for the first time opposed the 
franchise for women explicitly on the ground that 
woman is not the female of the human species, but 
a distinct and inferior species naturally disqualified 
from voting as a rabbit is disqualified from voting. 
This is a very common opinion." 

G. Bernard Shaw. 



1 



May 6th, 1913. 
■^HE sirocco yesterday afternoon temporarily 
put a stop to my sight seeing. Every crev- 
ice in the little hotel had to be closed up and 
we were nearly all asphyxiated in consequence. The 
hot wind swept over the valley. A veritable tor- 
nado, it brought semi-darkness with it for clouds of 
dust filled the air; obliterated the sun; beat against 
the windows in a fury to make entrance. Such a 
tempest as this it must have been that Allah sent in 
answer to the prayers of El-Hadj-ATssa, when he 

156 




N 



< 



THE INTERPRETER 157 

killed off the enemies of the Beni-Laghouat; only we, 
fortunately who had not Incurred any saint's wrath, 
were spared hailstones, so have survived to tell the 
story. 

When the violence of the storm had abated a lit- 
tle, I gingerly opened one window for a breath of 
air, of whatsoever quality it might be, and looked 
out. Nothing to be seen but a thick curtain of dust 
rolling away, further from us, up higher, envelop- 
ing the next town and Melika was shut off completely 
as by a drop scene In the middle of a drama. 

By night, happily, all was normal, for it is not one 
of the least joys of this country that nothing in the 
way of weather, except perhaps drought, lasts long. 
However trying to-day may be, there Is always rea- 
sonable hope that all will be well to-morrow: if 
not, certain sure the day after. At all events, on 
this occasion, by evening the dreadful pall which had 
been above us sank gradually to earth In millions 
of fragments, until such time as the hot wind from 
the South should again whip them up together and 
drive them en masse before It In Its mad tempestuous 
rage. 

My visit to our neighbours of Melika, therefore, 
was only postponed for a few hours and next morn- 
ing accompanied by my two cavaliers I climbed the 
stone paved winding ascent which leads to the top 
of the next hill. 

Imagine a mountain like a loaf of French bread 
In half with the end In the air; then cut off the first 
round with all Its knobs! Thus might Melika be 



158 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

removed at one fell stroke, so compactly Is it built 
on the very crown of the hill, with the Mosque oc- 
cupying the principal excrescence and a beautiful 
date palm, the pride of the town, growing close 
against its walls. Opposite was the well, said to be 
the deepest in the M'Zab, and at the corner the Caid 
had his office. This functionary, who acts as an in- 
termediary for the Arabs in their dealings with the 
Bureau Arabe and as the representative of his par- 
ticular town in every case, had met us in the market 
place for word had been sent to him that a roiimya 
visitor was coming. He was accompanied by his 
Interpreter and right-hand man : his mouthpiece with 
others probably besides foreigners for he seemed by 
far the most forceful and important person of the 
two. Ishak Sedd el-Kedim was a wealthy trader 
with shops In Algiers and in the M'Zab and it was 
to his house I was taken — not the Ca'id's — for the 
never falling hospitality to strangers. He was 
taller than most of his race and had more presence, 
but in other respects an unmistakable M'Zabite. 
He spoke French fluently, German a little; English, 
more wonderfully than inteUigibly, for he had been 
trying to teach himself by reading and pronounced 
the words with a strong Arabic guttural exactly as 
they were spelt — a method not to be recommended 
with our beautiful but somewhat exasperating lan- 
guage. In Algiers, naturally, he had come into con- 
tact with strangers from all parts of the world; was 
well informed about many countries of Europe In 
other respects than commercially and told me that 



THE INTERPRETER 159 

England, which he longed to see, must be like a beau- 
tiful garden. 

We sat — on chairs — round a table in a long 
low otherwise unfurnished room, and fresh milk was 
brought in with a large dish of dates, " the best in 
the world," it is said. To my uneducated taste they 
seemed rather dry and the Caid, who sat on my left, 
paid me the compliment of handing them to me with 
his very dirty fingers. Consequently, my progress 
in consuming them was so slow that the Interpreter, 
who was facing me at the table, remarked upon it 
and I was obliged to excuse myself by saying that I 
had only just breakfasted and was not hungry. 
Cups of strong cafe maure followed this first course 
and were succeeded by equally strong cups of tea 
made in English fashion. After this odd mixture 
of drinks, which made me feel rather ill, we went 
for a walk through the town, where there was not 
much to see except the view, beautiful on all sides 
with the oasis stretching away into the far distance, 
much further than eye could reach, and the golden 
glory that enveloped this mountain of light. 

The most curious and, to me, most pitiful part 
of that promenade, was the attitude of the poor lit- 
tle women we came across from time to time. They 
were all rolled up from top to toe in cream coloured 
melh'afa, which looked rather like sacks. Had 
there only been long upstanding loops near the head, 
their resemblance to rabbits would have been com- 
plete, especially as their movements were hampered 
by the folds of their long draperies which, presum- 



i6o A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

ably they dared not lift up from around their feet, 
even in their haste to hop away. It must be remem- 
bered that I was accompanied by four of those won- 
derful beings whom the Koran says God elevated 
above women by reason of the superior qualities with 
which he had endowed them. Their passage 
through the streets seemed to awaken terror in the 
breast of every female we met, so stringent are so- 
cial laws in the M'Zab. It is forbidden for women 
to mix with men in the public squares, or at wed- 
dings. Their attendance at a Mosque is not recom- 
mended, but discouraged, and should they go, they 
must keep right at the back and be unscented, lest 
they distract the attention of the faithful from their 
prayers by their presence and their perfume. For 
a man to touch a woman's hand, voluntarily, or even 
accidentally, amongst these Berber Puritans, is con- 
sidered a grievous sin. The market places women 
may not even enter, so fearful are the " superior 
sex " of falling victims to their dreaded fascinations, 
for these poor timid bunnies are held to be " the 
depository of dangerous magical forces " I Super- 
stitious fear of this nature engenders spiteful dislike 
which, together with an immense contempt for 
women, has been fostered by Arab literature. Writ- 
ers agree in asserting that all the great sages and 
all the great prophets have looked upon woman as 
a force solely for evil and the following tradition is 
illustrative of the general tone and feeling shewn in 
religious works. 

One day Jesus, the Son of Mary, met Iblis (the 



THE INTERPRETER i6i 

Devil) driving before him four heavily laden don- 
keys. 

" What are you about? " said Jesus to Iblis. 

" I have merchandize for sale and am conveying 
it to my most likely customers." 

" What have you there, in your first bale? " 

"Hardness: mercilessness." 

"Who buys that? " 

" Kings." 

" And in the second of your bales? " 

" Those contain jealousy." 

"Who buys it?" 

" Savants." 

" The third bale, what is in that? " 

" Deception." 

" To whom do you sell it? " 

" Merchants." 

" But in that fourth bale, what have you there? " 

" Cunning." 

" And who buys that? " 

" That is bought by women." 

Jesus went forth, cursing the works and trade of 
the devil. 

The followers of the Prophet, to their everlast- 
ing shame be it spoken, have done everything possi- 
ble to humiliate and debase womanhood. The 
women themselves, being kept in a complete state 
of mental ignorance, are voiceless and defenceless 
against all attack. In the M'Zab they are not al- 
lowed to leave the cities of the Confederation on any 
pretext whatever, not even to follow their husbandc^ 



i62 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

who would be declared heretic and outcast if their 
wives accompanied them to the towns where they 
trade. Women born at Beni-Isguen never pass be- 
yond that encircling band of stone : cannot marry in 
any other city, even of the M'Zab itself : within it 
they spend all the days of their lives until they die. 
Prisoners and captives they are in very deed and 
truth; sold when yet children, perhaps under eight 
years of age, to men who have them entirely at their 
mercy and who, according to an Arab proverb, 
" beat well when they love well." 

However, even here the tide Is just on the turn 
and in many places, including Ghardaia, efforts are 
being made by the Europeans to ameliorate the lot 
of the women and to raise them, little by little, from 
the degraded condition in which they have been kept 
for so many centuries by their highly superior lords, 
who forbade them the rites and consolations of re- 
ligion and who closed, as they hoped finally, the ap- 
proaches to knowledge, that they might render the 
mothers of their children almost mindless and kill 
out, by material desire, the better dictates of the 
soul. 

The custom of veiling, however, cannot be laid to 
the charge of the Moslems. It probably had its 
origin in the awful dread of the evil eye which 
haunts primitive races and dates back to almost pre- 
historic times. In those far distant days, young 
people of both sexes covered their faces, when in 
public, lest they should attract the envious glances of 
a ma'idn, always directed against beauty and youth, 



THE INTERPRETER 163 

with often such terrible results ! Add to this fear 
the Mussulman's dread of the fascinations of Eve, 
of the magic, electrical currents supposed to emanate 
from the gentler sex, against which the melh'afa 
afforded him some protection, and it is, after all, 
not so very surprising that it became " a duty, a vir- 
tue ... to hide all women. They were brought up 
in the belief that for a stranger to behold the face 
of a woman is almost an outrage," 

In my present surroundings there was no room 
for doubt that this social tradition held all the poor 
little rabbits fast in its grip. Faffa and Nanna, 
Betti, Chacha and Hanna, as they are most appro- 
priately named, darted into doorways; hid and 
crouched in any available nook, or angle; hopped 
nervously round corners, or pressed themselves 
against some house, their veiled faces close to the 
wall, their backs to us, who all passed on paying no 
heed to them whatever. As well as curiously pa- 
thetic, it was also very comical and I could not, for- 
bear making some comment on these ridiculous an- 
tics to Sedd-El-Kedim, who remarked with a solemn 
and severe countenance : — " Of course they hide 
themselves : they are ashamed ! " 

We finished our walk at the schools, of which the 
Interpreter appeared to be immensely proud, but I 
understand that, usually, if a M'Zabite can keep his 
boy out of a French school, he does so and will even 
pay for a proxy, should the authorities bring a little 
pressure to bear. In this out-of-the-way corner of 
the world, the tuition was as up-to-date and modern 



1 64 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

as In any European town, carried on by Arab mas- 
ters under a French Director. All the children en- 
joyed the same advantages, irrespective of race or 
creed. 

" This Is splendid for the future of your men," I 
said to him, " and what are you doing for the wom- 
en?" — ^'Nothing! " he responded shortly, "and 
never will. Our women must stay here. If they 
were taught to read, they would want to go away. 
Look at you, how you go about all over the world. 
We would never permit such a thing." I maintained 
a discreet silence but turned away to hide an Involun- 
tary smile! How often that Idea had been ex- 
pressed in every language, and in all lands had 
proved equally futile in the face of that inevitable 
law of evolution, which no man can arrest. The 
thin end of the wedge has been driven in even at 
Ghardaia by the Soeurs Blanches beneath the Inter- 
preter's own eyes. The work of civilisation begun 
by the Schools for Industries is being carried on still 
more rapidly by classes for reading and writing even 
In such a hotbed of fanaticism as Constantine. 
True, the fathers object and say they " do not wish 
their daughters to become Interpreters," but their 
grumbles are unheeded, wherever and whenever pos- 
sible, whilst at Bone, amongst the Kabyles, the 
Schools must be enlarged, so great, and Increasing, Is 
the number of entries. Therefore, despite the dic- 
tum of the Interpreter there is hope for the Arab 
women of a better future, and for all the world that 



THE INTERPRETER 165 

the hideous dead level and degradation to mankind 
of rabbit hutch traditions will, ere long, be relegated 
to the dust heap of other worn out creeds, injustices 
and superstitions. 



1 



CHAPTER XVI 

THE SACRED CITY OF THE ABADIA 

" The name of this sect of the Faithful is taken 
from that of Abd Allah ben Abad. We call our- 
selves Abadia." 

Abou El-Kacem ben Brahim El-Berradi. 

" JJne petite eglise ferme!" 

May 2nd, 19 13. 
"THOUGH the sirocco has passed on to some 
other region, it has left its marks upon us 
all and upon everything around us. It has 
been the fuse which has set in action all the forces 
of fire. Since its departure the sun's rays have, each 
day, burnt more fiercely: the rocks and stones have 
taken on a deeper note of glistening colour. As 
the luminous heat intensifies we human beings quail, 
and seek to hide ourselves in the shadow of such 
shelter as we may. The nice little wife of the 
patrone grows whiter and looks pathetic over her 
cooking: when her one and only servitor suddenly 
vanishes, she is on the brink of tears. " It is too 
bad ! " she murmurs in a tired voice. " The natives 
often treat me like this. I don't know what has be- 
come of Mohamed." It takes two days to discover 
that he was picked up on the road, hopelessly drunk, 

166 



SACRED CITY OF THE ABADIA 167 

and clapped Into jail, but his terrible lapse from the 
paths of Mussulman virtue was probably due to the 
cause from which we are all suffering, more or less. 
Kaha grows more silent during our promenades; 
perhaps only for the reason that my questions are 
rarer, for the flesh is weakening in this tropical heat 
and the spirit within me. Still, not a mile and a half 
distant, remains to be explored that mysterious walled- 
in centre of sanctity where no foreigner, no Jew, no 
Arab even may ever dwell. As a great concession 
weary travellers can obtain ^ lodging for the night, 
but only In a private house, for caravanserais and 
cafes simply do not exist. In Beni-Isguen strangers 
are not wanted. Rumour speaks, with bated breath, 
of vast treasures stored away; of hoards of gold ac- 
cumulated In the Tell, in the oases of the Algerian 
Sahara, and brought there by the Faithful, who have 
excelled in well doing and have followed righteously 
in the way pointed out by tradition and by the writ- 
ings and exhortations of the Fathers of their sect. 
Though the Abadia, as do other religious bodies, 
preach detachment from the things of this world, 
running parallel with this idea, — outrunning it per- 
haps? — is the eulogy of those who, by their energy, 
enterprise and contempt of an Idle luxurious exist- 
ence, amass great wealth, of which the dwellers in 
the M'Zab have so keen an appreciation that they 
are known as the " Jews of the Desert." " Khar- 
edjites " (those who go out) is another title, given 
to them after the death of the Prophet, when In- 
ternal strife devastated the Mussulman world and a 



1 68 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

certain number of dissentients " went out from obe- 
dience," from the four orthodox sects, making a fifth 
(Khouimes) , and this Is the true explanation of the 
number, as appHed to M'Zabltes, of which Abdal- 
lah's version was an amusing and original varia- 
tion. 

All, Mahomet's son-in-law, slaughtered the unfor- 
tunate dissenters wholesale, but a few escaped mas- 
sacre and found a ready hearing and converts in 
North Africa. The tribes, who resented the rule of 
the stranger in their midst, caught eagerly at the 
prospect of grafting the religious Idea on to the po- 
litical one and thus giving the struggle, which en- 
sued, the aspects of a holy war for the best part of 
two hundred years. In those two centuries Khar- 
edjism became all powerful, but, in the meantime, 
the dissentients had themselves disagreed on minor 
points of doctrine, and like their more orthodox 
brethren, they also divided into four sects, of which 
by far the most numerous and important was that of 
the Abadla. Nearly all the Berber tribes of Trip- 
oli, Fezzan, of the Tunisian Djerid, of the Oued- 
Souf, Oued-RIgh, of Ouargla and the Algerian Sa- 
hara might be numbered amongst the devoted disci- 
ples of Abd Allah ben Abad. 

Then came the turn of fortune's wheel and in the 
year 942-3 of our era, Kharedpsm collapsed and its 
adherents were almost wiped out In a desperate 
struggle with the Rostemldes. Of those who sur- 
vived some went to the Island of Djerba, some to 
Djebel Nefous : others again fled to the south of 



SACRED CITY OF THE ABADIA 169 

Ouargla on the confines of the great Eastern desert, 
called El Erg. 

This latter handful of Berber Puritans had es- 
caped death by the sword, only to find themselves in 
an uninhabited and Inhospitable region but, for the 
time being, they were at least safe from political 
strife and religious persecution. With the most 
wonderful patience, energy and pluck they laboured 
for forty years In a wilderness of sand and just as 
they were triumphing over the natural obstacles 
they had encountered ; just as they were on the point 
of reaping the reward of their long toil, by the 
irony of fate, success wrought their ruin. The peo- 
ple of Ouargla thought their own future threatened 
by such clever and energetic neighbours and attacked 
the Abadites with a determination and persistence 
which forced them to fly from the homes they had 
made for themselves In the Valley of the Oued Mia 
and to seek a more secure refuge than even El Erg 
could afford them. This they found in the M'Zab. 

Only a people so cruelly persecuted could have 
elected to pitch their tents in this weird and God-for- 
saken valley. " Seen from outside, on the north and 
east, this belt of rocks presents the aspect of group 
upon group of vaulted tombs, raised one above an- 
other without the slightest order : a great Arab cem- 
etery to all appearance. Nature herself seems dead ; 
no sign of vegetation here to rest the eye; even the 
birds of prey appear to flee the desolation of this 
spot. An implacable sun sheds his rays on rocky 
walls of greyish white, which fling them back In still 



I70 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

intenser heat, till they lose themselves In the strange 
fantastic shadows they have helped to form." 

Here the Abadites might hold the world at bay; 
might defy the orthodox, who not only thought them 
doomed to perish, in company with Jews and Chris- 
tians, in the flames of hell, but hastened their de- 
parture to that mythical hot region whenever oppor- 
tunity afforded. Here was indeed a refuge isolated 
from all men other than themselves; shut off by a 
vast stretch of country difficult to traverse on ac- 
count of its aridity, with but a single approach prac- 
ticable for an invading foe. Apart from this track 
northwards access was only possible on foot: either 
by a stony spiral way, with steep ravines, which 
threatened death at every turn; or, through a path 
so narrow and so rocky that " its dangers equal the 
most perilous ascents of the Alps and Pyrenees." 
Close to its entrance, where two rivers meet, the Ab- 
adites built themselves their Sacred City. 

Dread of attack still seems to haunt the inhabit- 
ants. It is even within this last half-century that 
Beni-Isguen has been re-fortified according to rather 
antique European methods: its brick wall replaced 
at great cost by one of stone and its gardens pro- 
tected " as if but one idea occupied the minds of the 
entire community." Did horror of persecution, of 
flight, of loss of home and fruits of toil so grip 
their ancestors that fear is reborn in each successive 
generation? Or is it because their " state of glory " 
when Islam was at the zenith of splendour Is past? 
That their " state of resistance," when they were 



SACRED CITY OF THE ABADIA 171 

strong enough to fight an enemy successfully, has 
also gone by with the years ; that, now. It is only per- 
mitted them to dwell In a " state of secrecy " which 
they endeavour thus to more completely guard? 
None but an Abadlte may cross the threshold of 
their Mosques; none but a co-religionist may know 
the hidden workings of their system. Any Mussul- 
man, who does not believe their doctrine In Its en- 
tirety, is an infidel and, consequently, outside the law. 
Any of the Faithful committing a grave social of- 
fence thereby becomes an Infidel. For Law and Re- 
ligion are one. 

This doctrine has, for their own purposes, been 
exaggerated by the clerics, who by a process of in- 
itiation, known only to themselves, by their superior 
knowledge and the difference of their habits, have 
set themselves apart from the laity. Over the heads 
of their more ignorant followers they hold the ter- 
ror of the tenebria, the decree of banishment and ex- 
communication, as effectual and dreaded as were, at 
any period In Europe, the thunders of Rome. 

Impossible, whatever the temperature, to leave 
the M'Zab without first penetrating the gates of so 
fascinating a city I " Kaha ! " I said, " summer has 
come early into this wonderful valley: the heat Is 
becoming unbearable and on Monday you and I will 
leave for Laghouat, but tell Lackdor that tomorrow 
we will visit the Ca'id at Benl-Isguen." 

As at Ghardaia, the brown habitations of the Sa- 
cred City rise tier upon tier, like an amphitheatre. 



172 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

enclosed In a high crenelated band of stone curving 
outwards and upwards and a Mosque with a broken 
pyramid dominating the whole. The entrance gate 
stood fairly low down on the hill and we clambered 
up through little lanes which took queer twists and 
turnings, sometimes so narrow that I suddenly found 
myself in deep shadow and then again in a square, 
or triangle, exposed to the pitiless rays of the sun. 
Early though it was, every corridor, stairway or 
open place had been swept and garnished and was 
most beautifully clean; no litter of any sort to be 
seen, not even a match, or the smoked end of a ciga- 
rette, for smoking is as much prohibited as strong 
drink in this city of mediaeval saints. Except my- 
self and my two guides hardly anyone seemed 
abroad. Now and again we met sundry male inhab- 
itants and once I thought to have a brief vision of 
women vanishing down a neighbouring street. 
Doors seemed to be hermetically sealed, so tight 
shut were they; not one ajar to let me get a glimpse 
of an interior, unless It were a little shop with a pale 
visaged merchant seated behind his counter and a 
friend or two on benches just within the boundary 
line. Life and colour there was, every now and 
again. In those winding paths, when we came upon 
groups of children, in bright hued garments of or- 
ange and red, but so unused were they to a stranger 
that they either fled from me, as fast as their little 
legs could carry them, or, if too tiny to escape, they 
burst into tears. 

Whenever I enquired the situation of the Mosque, 



SACRED CITY OF THE ABADIA 173 

it seemed to recede to some area always far distant 
from that I happened to be traversing, and I never 
even saw the sacred portals, through which no unbe- 
liever has ever yet passed. As we reached the sum- 
mit of the hill, which spreads itself out into a rocky 
plateau, we found an immense ancient watch tower 
which had formed part of the original fortifications 
and which, says tradition, was built in a single night 
by invisible workmen. They had been summoned 
by a saintly resident, at a certain critical period of 
the city's history, when the foe was actually nearing 
the walls. Certainly no enemy could enter the val- 
ley unseen since its erection, and I had a superb view, 
from the lookout, over the surrounding country. 
The building is about 80 feet high and circular, 
with accommodation for a large number of men on 
each of its five stories, well furnished with loop 
holes, but it amused me to see that the lock of its 
only entrance was of the same primitive description 
as that Lisette had found on her studio door in the 
Place of Happiness. It was a trifle larger maybe 
and the key was fitted with iron instead of wooden 
nails, suggesting a dangerous weapon rather than 
the purpose for which it was intended. As such, 
whether of wood, or in more modern form, of iron, 
the keys of the M'Zab play an important part in 
heated discussions for it is the fashion for the mas- 
ter of every house to wear the key of his castle sus- 
pended round his neck. Before prayer, or prior to 
any religious ceremony if of iron, he must remove 
it on account of its magical properties, for this super- 



174 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

stitlon, which is supposed to be a survival of the 
stone age, lingers throughout the country, except, 
perhaps, in the vicinity of iron mines, where it has 
been ousted by daily contact with the precious min- 
eral. Elsewhere, the dread of it seems so preva- 
lent, that blacksmiths in Algeria form a caste by 
themselves, can marry only within their own magic 
circle and are looked down upon by their neighbours 
as being quite outside the social pale. It has been 
said, that a Tuareg — a word synonymous with 
thief and robber — would no more condescend to 
light a blacksmith than would a mediaeval knight 
have crossed swords with a commoner. 

The Cai'd of Beni-Isguen, as befitted his exalted 
position, displayed an enormous iron key, at least 
ten inches in length, upon his portly person, like a 
badge of office and its obvious duplicate had opened 
the door of the Bureau where we found him, squat- 
ting on the floor with two of his subordinates. He 
was extremely unprepossessing in appearance but 
tried to be most polite and asked me if I would not 
prefer to stay in the Sacred City rather than in Ghar- 
daia, adding almost in the same breath, however, 
that at Beni-Isguen there were no hotels for stran- 
gers ! I was extremely pleased when the cool re- 
freshing tea was brought to us, for conversation 
languished and, as soon as possible, I rose to take 
my departure, thanking my host for his hospitality 
and permission to see the town. 

And in effect what had I seen of it? The mere 
outside. What does any European see, or know, 



SACRED CITY OF THE ABADIA 175 

of the Inner workings of this primitive civilisation 
so full of mystery; of the secret springs which set 
in movement and the links, which hold together, this 
strange people? For those who go amongst them, 
a fairy hand rolls back curtains dropped over the 
centuries and one bends forward with eager curios- 
ity and profound interest to look at the yet living 
past, to catch elusive glimpses of what has been and 
here, is still. 

When the " state of secrecy " is over and a new 
era dawns, will this Confederation of the Five 
Towns be equally enthralling, or more so, Is a ques- 
tion for the future ; but In the present to have looked 
upon this Purgatory of rock and stone and the Para- 
dise of Palms man has created beyond it. Is, to my 
mind, well worth the long and weary pilgrimage to 
the wonderful Valley of the Oued M'Zab. 



PART III 
AMONGST MOUNTAINS 



CHAPTER XVII 

THE MAGICIAN 

'^Medicine is the daughter of Magic" 
" The science of letters is the science of the Uni- 
verse." E. DOUTTE. 

June 1st, 1 9 13. 

FOR a week and more I have been located on 
an eyrie; on a verdant wooded terrace of 
the Jebel Zaccar Gharbi; with a background 
of mountain rising up, 2,000 feet and more, behind 
the town. From it there is a superb outlook over 
orchards : over trees, laden with blossom in spring- 
time, to be raved about when they dress themselves 
in white and shades of pink; and bowed down with 
fruit in the summer, to be robbed of apples and 
peaches and pears, half hidden by abundant green 
foliage, and of red cherries which flaunt themselves 
gaudily and insist on being seen. " For there is al- 
ways water here, in Miliana," the inhabitants say, 
with a rejoicing air of pride in their valuable treas- 
ure; and the plants, athirst with the tropical heat, 
drink greedily and flourish greatly in beauty and 
luxuriance of growth. 

This ledge which shelves out from the mountain 

to allow ample space for the picturesque romantic 

179 



i8o A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

little town to rest upon it and spread itself upwards 
if it feels so disposed, is just about midway between 
Miliana-Margueritte, at the foot of the Zaccar, and 
a white-washed kouba, which crowns the top, whither 
women pilgrims flock with hope, in their hearts, as 
green as the vine covered slopes they climb in the 
early dawn of the Mussulman Sunday. 

On the edge of the shelf, at the Pointe aux 
Blagueurs, the gossips love to gather under the shade 
of the whispering trees and to look over the great 
plain of the Chelif, which lies to the south and east, 
with its harvest of ripening grain 2,500 feet below. 
Beyond that again are more mountains : the Ouar- 
senis, the tree covered Dahras and, far away in the 
distance, the Southern Atlas of Tell. 

It is said to be a dull, depressing little town, with 
few distractions to vary the monotony of daily life, 
but to-day it has put on its gayest air, for the annual 
fetes of June have attracted young people from Al- 
giers, so that the steam tram, which ascends the first 
half of this long hill, brought a heavy load of hu- 
manity along its windings and, at last, through the 
avenue, planted with planes, which leads to the Zac- 
car Gate. 

To pass beneath this northern arch is to be 
straightway in the town, with the market place 
on either hand, and at the head of the principal 
shopping street, which latter Is likewise the haunt 
of the idlers. Alternately, on one side or the other, 
throughout its entire length are cafes and the mag- 
nificent trees, which tower above the houses and fol- 



THE MAGICIAN i8i 

low each other In regular order down the rue de St. 
Paul, invite repose and a chat with one's neighbours 
under their friendly shade at this meeting place, or 
at that. Thus the mornings glide pleasantly away 
and so also the long summer afternoons, with no 
heed to the chimes of an accusing clock, which calls 
each passing hour from its ancient dwelling midway 
down the street. There, at the very centre of the 
town, as if it were its pulse, it ticks out the seconds 
in the minaret of an old Mosque, where once the 
crier stood; and its cheery face looks out from a 
frame of ivy and green foliage which has grown 
about its strange home since the wars with the cele- 
brated Emir, Abd-el-Kadr, nearly a century ago. 
Shrubs planted thickly round the tower are fenced 
In by iron palings and, on the further side, to-day 
some Moroccan acrobats took up an excellent posi- 
tion to display their daring feats to the crowd, which 
gathered around them in the Place Carnot. As 
usual, It was the funny man, who did everything 
wrong, or failed to do It at all, that delighted the 
audience and wrung their pennies from them. As 
for the rest, they stood on their own heads, or each 
other's, upside down or right side up and balanced 
long guns on a wrist, or only a finger, whirling them 
round and round with consummate ease. 

They were a swarthy, shock-headed crew with 
black locks and a large gold ring In one ear. Half 
a dozen of them in shorts with a white ground dot- 
ted over with red or brown and jackets to match or- 
namented with arabesques and belted with purple or 



1 82 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

yellow, made a picturesque group enough against 
the background of greenery. The dash of the bar- 
baric in their appearance was enhanced by the weird 
music of the tomtoms and reed pipes which attracted 
numerous onlookers and their performance was pro- 
gressing to the satisfaction of everyone concerned, 
when suddenly a yell of terror rent the air. The 
crowd parted, and in all directions each one showed 
a clean pair of heels for, without the slightest warn- 
ing, out of the leafy bower behind them and over 
the heads of the musicians, a shimmering silvery 
scaly snake, about three feet long, leapt into the air, 
fell where the acrobats had been, and writhed its 
way across the Place to the roadway at the further 
side. 

Dreading a succession of such unwelcome visitors, 
attracted like themselves by the music of the pipes, 
the crowd, and I with it, drifted up the street to just 
within the Zaccar Gate at the corner of the Market 
Place and where already there was a large gather- 
ing round a magician from Morocco. He was ply- 
ing a lucrative trade in amulets, to cure various ma- 
terial and physical ills; and, alternately, giving ex- 
hibitions of magic to the usual accompaniment of 
flutes and of a curious drum, like an earthenware 
jar, balanced against the shoulder of the boy player, 
who strummed on the skin drawn taut over the other 
end. 

Conspicuous by their gay clothes amongst this au- 
dience was a group of tirailleurs and they kindly 
made a way for me to pass through them to reach a- 



THE MAGICIAN 183 

high bank against the wall, from which I had an ex- 
cellent view of the proceedings and of the central 
figure. The magician was an old man, but straight 
as an arrow; tall and lean, with a thin face and light 
blue eyes which had a look in them as if, together 
with sundry properties of his profession, he kept a 
private laugh up the sleeve of his blue robe for the 
most credulous of his patients. On his head he 
wore a blue and white woollen skull cap and in his 
right hand, of course, flourished the traditional 
wand. Before him was a high narrow box with a 
jointed lid, which only half opened, not to reveal 
its contents to the curious, and from this he produced 
a large number of djedouel ^ for sale at two, four 
and six sous apiece. 

This form of amulet Is based on the continuity of 
the universe : on the fact, which scientific men are 
now presenting as a discovery, but which has always 
been known to primitive peoples, that there is naught 
in this little world of ours, which exists to itself 
alone, but that all things of this earth and all of 
heaven bring their Influence to bear upon each other 
and especially on man. 

For Mussulmen there is a great mystery and magic 
in certain letters : some of those beginning verses 
of the Koran are quite incomprehensible to human 
intelligence, say the orthodox. Arab magic has 
pounced upon them naturally enough, and has made 
them all its own : has gone further by giving to each 
one a numerical value, which enhances its importance 

1 Amulets. 



1 84 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

by the magic of numbers and brings It Into the 
scheme of planetary Influences, signs of the Zodiac, 
the four elements, the lunar houses, the days of the 
week and the names of God. Letters and combi- 
nations of letters forming words are frequently en- 
closed In the " embracing circle " for " Allah Is be- 
hind, enveloping all things," and somewhere or 
other, as In a herz, Is generally to be found the fa- 
miliar figure of King Solomon's Seal. The djed- 
ouelj I bought for four sous, as a memento of the 
occasion, has the Intersected triangle twice, as a 
superscription In green Ink, and two circles within 
drawn in red and green respectively, both enclosing 
many mystic signs and numbers. My immediate 
neighbours In the crowd were much interested in 
my purchase and strongly recommended me to pay 
six sous for another, much superior amulet, but as I 
was not just then needing Its peculiar properties I 
saved my pennies for the entertainment which was 
to follow. This was prefaced by an Immensely long 
invocation in which the name of the Saint Abd-el- 
Kadr recurred frequently and when God was men- 
tioned the crowd simultaneously raised their hands 
to their faces. 

Everyone being now In a proper attitude of mind 
and of belief, out of the property box the magician 
produced two brass measures of different sizes about 
a pint and a quart respectively, together with a long 
nail which he passed up his nose, promising that 
soon It would reappear out of the back of his head. 



THE MAGICIAN 185 

Whilst It was wandering about Inside, searching for 
an outlet, he took a handful of beans and chewing 
each, threw them one by one Into the smaller vessel 
which he showed us to be perfectly empty. As he 
did so the nail fell (of course out of the back of his 
head) with a thud on the ground and hardly had his 
audience recovered from this marvel than they were 
confronted with another. The beans had changed 
into sweets of desire. The little coloured balls of 
sugar would bring the fulfilment of a wish to whom- 
ever eat thereof, and in an incredibly short space of 
time the measure was empty. The same plan of 
action produced a quart of djedouel which sold like 
wild fire and, delighted with his skill, the medicine 
man blessed God, to which the crowd again re- 
sponded with their accustomed sign. Then came 
the wonder of wonders: the making of money! In 
that pint measure beans were turned Into copper 
coins; sous into sweets; bonbons Into a shower of 
five franc pieces In quick succession. Still more im- 
pressive was it to see the golden louls' emerge one 
by one from the magician's mouth, where beneath 
the strained attentive gaze of a myriad of eyes, beans 
had been put in and chewed; so that the crowd 
clapped and clapped again led by the magician, who 
was hugely pleased with his own success. There 
was no doubt of the reputation he had made for 
himself amongst his audience, such as It Is the chief 
end and aim of all physicians to engender in their 
patients and if his cures, of which he now sold more 



1 86 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

than ever, were not effectual, It surely would not be 
from any lack of that faith which is " the substance 
of things hoped for." 

He had come to Miliana, doubtless, as any doc- 
tor in the other three continents might have done, 
to practise temporarily at a resort where suffering 
humanity presents itself In numbers, and perchance, 
to offer up prayers also beside the tomb of the pa- 
tron saint of magicians, fortune tellers, strollers and 
gipsies, of the renowned and venerated Sidi Ahmed 
ben Youcef, who chose to end his days in this charm- 
ing little town. 

A picturesque mediaeval figure this learned Moor 
from Andalousia, such as could only be met with in 
the pages of a history of the Middle Ages. Skilled 
in the art of healing and in all those sciences pre- 
served amongst the elect of Southern Spain, he 
toured about Algeria from west to east on his fa- 
vourite mule accompanied by one devoted servitor, 
spreading the doctrines of the Prophet and pouring 
forth the most withering scorn on the heads of the 
wicked and of those who did not welcome himself 
with the kindness, reverence and hospitality due to 
his saintly life and person. Like most Mussulman 
saints he was a dangerous man to trifle with, as the 
people of Tenes found to their cost. They thought 
to trick him with a dish of boiled cat, most carefully 
disguised and prepared by the best cook in the town. 
They might have had more sense, we think, who 
know his powers by tradition ! Not for one single 
Instant was he deceived, but seizing the poor beast 



THE MAGICIAN 187 

by a paw he exclaimed "S'cat!" with such vehe- 
mence and conviction that it jumped Into Its skin 
with fear, bolted from the dish and vanished into 
space. 

Even then the inhabitants of this benighted city 
declined to believe In their guest who, naturally dis- 
gusted at the treatment he had received, turned his 
back forthwith upon the city, refusing even to spend 
a single night within its walls. This made them an- 
gry as well as the failure of their little joke, from 
which they had expected some amusement, so that a 
rude menacing crowd collected, who followed the 
departing SIdi. His mule, unaccustomed to be hur- 
ried out of a stately jogtrot, fell down and the fore- 
most pursuers caught hold of Its rider by his bur- 
nous. Now this was more than any saint could bear 
with equanimity and Allah was a witness to the insult. 
Immediately the earth opened: the whole party of 
villains fell Into the yawning chasm which closed 
up promptly over their heads and, needless to say, 
not one of them was ever seen, or heard of, again. 

Then Ahmed ben Youcef journeyed on In safety 
and set his face towards the Western Zaccar Moun- 
tains, where he founded a famous zaouia In his de- 
clining days and bequeathed his body, with Its heal- 
ing powers strong In death as in life, to Mlliana. 
Not that he altogether approved of the little town, 
for It is on record that he said of it: " The women 
rule there and the men are prisoners," which must 
indeed have seemed a terrible state of affairs to a 
Mussulman and a monk withal: a condition of things 



1 88 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

surely too strange to be quite true In this country, 
though one would hardly dare to challenge the de- 
parted saint's veracity! 

The Mosque, where his tomb has its sanctuary, 
lies at the back of the town, covering a large area 
between two streets and raised above the level of the 
roadway on a white stone terrace planted with trees. 
From this an archway leads into an oblong and pil- 
lared cloister delightfully cool and shady with a tree 
spreading its branches over each corner and with 
steps on two sides ascending to an upper gallery, 
shut off by great painted wooden doors which open 
to admit women pilgrims, who come to draw water 
at the ornamental fountain in the centre of the court. 
It is quite uncanny to see them in such numbers 
within the precincts of a Mosque and to think that 
they should occupy the little cells once inhabited by 
students, who had sat at the feet of the learned saint 
to drink In wisdom from his lips. At night mysteri- 
ous lights appear, burn In one place or more for 
awhile; go out, or move on to another portion of 
that upper floor and draped figures ascend the steps 
leading to the terrace from the street. In the day- 
time they mostly foregather around the tomb itself, 
sitting within its shadow, lying full length and roll- 
ing against it to benefit by the baraka which perme- 
ates the walls, the floor, the stone, the wood, the 
drapery, the atmosphere of that high domed cham- 
ber. Once only I saw a man. In middle life, with 
grizzled beard come in amongst them, kneel de- 
voutly at the foot and, lifting the covering of red 



THE MAGICIAN 1S9 

velvet, hide himself beneath it, pressing his body 
against the tomb, but many men of a poorer class 
pass into a narrow stone space beyond and pray for 
help from the devoted servant of Sidi Ahmed ben 
Youcef, who lies buried there. 

Wherever possible were little slits for offerings 
and on one occasion an old woman ran me round to 
all of them in turn, that I too should contribute to 
the upkeep of this sanatorium, leaving me at last the 
poorer by a good many sous. 

So well has everything been organised for tlie 
comfort of pilgrims coming from afar that, in an 
outer court there are large stables, placed no doubt 
under the protection of the saint's mule. The 
tomb of this remarkable animal is close at hand 
near the entrance and has large hoof-like holes in the 
wooden board which fronts it, as if he had given one 
vigorous final kick out with all his four legs in line 
when they burled him. On the tiny ledges I found 
humble offerings of grain. 

It can be understood that a large Mosque thus 
arranged for travellers appeared to the French as 
most excellent temporary housing for troops when 
the town was taken, but they counted without their 
saintly host when they committed this sacrilege. 
Was it likely that Sidi Ahmed ben Youcef would 
permit a horde of roumi in his demesne? When 
night came and " lights out " had been sounded 
what a time those poor soldiers had of it! 
They fought a mighty army more persistent and in- 
vincible than any they had yet been called upon to 



I90 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

face. In countless myriads the enemy swarmed over 
walls and ceilings and floors and mattresses attack- 
ing the Frenchmen with such venom that nothing 
could overcome and left them no peace, till, worn 
out by sleeplessness, they fled before the wrath of 
the dead saint and the insidious foe he had invoked 
to the rescue; a foe that shall be nameless. It was 
a terrible lesson to the conquerors and from hence- 
forth, as may be imagined, nothing has been al- 
lowed to interfere with the religious uses of the 
Mosque; nor with the ministrations of the long de- 
parted and learned doctor, whose magic power of 
healing has, it would seem, suffered no deterioration 
during the many centuries which have rolled by since 
he exercised it in person amongst the faithful and 
devoted followers of Islam. 



CHAPTER XVIII 

THE IRON MINES OF THE WESTERN ZACCAR 

"We have made iron descend from on high: 
therein lurks a source of evil but also of utility to 
man." Koran lvii, v. 25. 

June 6th, 19 13. 

A PRETTY little town inhabited by pictur- 
esque Idlers," remarks the casual ob- 
server, as he strolls through Miliana from 
the Pointe de Blagueurs and takes up his stand 
on the hill slopes outside the Zaccar Gate. Yes, 
it would seem to be so in the avenues of plane 
trees with all truth, but beneath his feet, did he but 
know it, dwells In darkness a vast army of work- 
ers; of human ants, burrowing, blasting, toiling, 
the round of the clock where It Is always night, to 
find the ductile metal, which is so precious, that the 
suggestion of magic clings to It still. 

Outside, In the gay sunshine, amidst all the green 
verdure of a smiling landscape there Is so little to be 
seen of this big enterprise which keeps hundreds of 
French, Spaniards, Italians, Moroccans, Arabs and 
Kabyles in the bowels of the earth for the best part 
of their lives. Afar up, nearing the mountain top, 
is a long range of building divided into workshops, 

191 



192 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

restaurant and sleeping quarters for those of the 
tollers who hardly, if ever, leave the scene of their 
labours. Below, on another ridge are some engine 
sheds and, running nearly the whole length of the 
slope at one side, a line of rails with steel pulleys 
to lower waggons full of soil to meet the steam- tram 
at the foot, the beginning of the transport by land 
and sea to Belgium. That is all that meets the gaze 
of the curious, or interested traveller, as the eye wan- 
ders over the whole mountain side, with an occa- 
sional vision of human ants directing the descent of 
the vans, or coming out into the blinding sunlight 
for a brief look at the outside world and then diving 
again into the dark galleries below. Who would 
imagine that the soil-clad and seemingly impenetra- 
ble rock is riddled through and through from sum- 
mit to base by twenty corridors superimposed and 
that in this ant heap of tunnels live fifteen hundred 
men? 

"One day," said a geological expert in 1859, 
" commerce will utilise all the wonderful layers of 
mineral deposit so abundant in the environs of Mil- 
iana," and for the past sixteen years, by dint of in- 
finite patience and unremitting toil, the secret treas- 
ure Nature had so carefully concealed within her 
bosom and which his knowledge revealed to the 
world, has been removed little by little from the 
mountain's heart and plunged into the great smelt- 
ing furnaces of some far distant manufacturing town. 
The magic and romance of industry this, with all 



MINES OF WESTERN ZACCAR 193 

the patient drudgery hidden away beneath a smiling 
verdant surface or behind Immense brick walls ! 

It surprised the Director greatly that I should 
wish to see the workings, " but Madam," said he 
very courteously, " If you are Interested In mines I 
will place a guide at your disposal." This morn- 
ing, therefore, I presented myself once again at the 
Bureau and was escorted up the very toilsome ascent 
to the nineteenth gallery where was an opening like 
the caverns of the fairy tales, such as led to the treas- 
ure chambers discovered by SInbad the Sailor. A 
few paces within the temperature dropped at least 
ten degrees and night fell suddenly, so that only the 
feeble flicker of our lamps Illumined the many miles 
we traversed In gloom of endless passages roofed 
In by rock, paved with rock, walled in by rock. 
Many twistings and turnings in these long tunnels, 
for now and again, after persistent boring, still there 
are no signs of iron; the track Is lost, the labour 
is wasted, experts must come to the rescue and point 
the way once more. So we went on and on until 
at last we also faced rock where three men were 
busy at their monotonous toil, each with a lamp hung 
up beside him and in his immediate vicinity the holes 
he had bored ready to be filled with powder for the 
first blasting of the day. Morning and evening, at 
II and 4 o'clock the workers pour out of the mine 
for the operations of the powder man. A veritable 
Guy Fawkes is he with his tin strapped on to his 
back, sometimes swinging himself up to the holes by 



194 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

a chain when the Incisions are made near the roof 
and with never too much time to escape the clouds 
of dust which speedily follow the lighting of the fuse. 
This scene repeats itself in each gallery, forty times 
within the mountain every day and when evening 
comes the workers feel themselves rewarded if they 
have succeeded in breaking Into that solid mass of 
rock by about one yard. 

My guide had chosen this particular gallery that 
I could see a wonderful little engine at work, run- 
ning along rails to collect perhaps forty vans filled 
from receptacles, like cisterns, into which the earth, 
impregnated with mineral, had been emptied from 
the corridor above. Primed with liquor, this im- 
portant bustling Pufiing Billy headed for the en- 
trance, dragging its loads along at a great pace and 
enlivening the intense silence of that dark interior 
by the hiss of steam, the rush of wheels and the 
scream of Its warning whistle. 

" Like the tram at Alger," said laughingly a 
cheery Italian, who had taken it into his head to join 
us and point out landmarks, which he knew full well, 
but which my unaccustomed eyes would never have 
discovered in the gloom. 

" We have several hotels, as you can see, where 
we breakfast," indicating odd corners where some 
biscuit tins, a few newspapers and a cup or glass 
were the only signs of a morning meal. 

" This is the pneumatic tube, which helps the bor- 
ers to clear the holes of debris, by means of the pres- 
sure of air when it is allowed to escape. That 



MINES OF WESTERN ZACCAR 195 

steep iron ladder will take us down to the gallery 
below If you would like another promenade in the 
dark. Ah! look at this!" lifting up his lamp. 
" Do you see this bed of calcaire which runs side 
by side with the iron? We lost track of the mineral 
and the workings have taken another direction. 
When we turn this corner we may put out our 
lamps." 

Here we were, once more, at the entrance, with 
Guy Fawkes on the threshold awaiting our exit : out- 
side the glorious sunshine and a vault of blue ether ! 



CHAPTER XIX 

THE WIFE OF MAHOMED AZZIZI 

"A jewel hidden in a casket: perfume enclosed 
in a sealed bottle." 

"A woman is like a bouquet of flowers: as soon 
as she moves the air is filled with perfume." 

Arab Proverb. 

June, 1913. 

AS a rule it is not my habit to take much inter- 
est in my neighbours — quite the reverse ; 
but when the road which divided me from 
those living exactly opposite, was so narrow that 
we might almost have shaken hands across it from 
our respective balconies, it would have been rather 
difficult to avoid observing a few of the incidents 
which made up the sum of their lives day by day. 

This was my situation at the only hotel of the 
little hill town, built on a ledge of the Zaccar moun- 
tain, to which chance had directed my steps at the 
very end of May; but at first sight the closely 
shuttered dwelling opposite looked as dull and un- 
promising as could be. It was attached to a long 
low building, on the whitewashed wall of which big 
black letters stared me full in the face : 

MAHOMED AZZIZI, 

Manufacture de Tabac. 

196 



THE WIFE OF MAHOMED AZZIZI 197 

Above them was a single tiny window and a sort of 
sky light in the roof, but no apparent means of en- 
trance except from the adjoining house. Subse- 
quently, I discovered that the Arabs employed in 
the factory gained admission to It by a door, at the 
back, opening Into a narrow lane opposite a villa. 

Various sounds of the day's work reached me 
from the whitewashed barn; and sometimes, 
through the fast closed shutters of the house, scold- 
ing querulous voices and the wailing of a year old 
child. After about a week the wooden blinds were 
pushed back occasionally to admit an old woman 
on to the balcony with the crying baby In her arms. 
Perhaps my neighbours had discovered that, for 
once, It was not a man who occupied the room that 
overlooked the apartments of Fathima-Zorah, Ma- 
homed Azzizi's young wife who had given her lord 
a son. Still the mother never appeared though on 
two or three occasions It seemed to me Hadda, the 
nurse, was forcibly propelled from behind and that 
another figure tried to follow her, but the woman, 
despite her age, always succeeded in putting up a bar 
across the windows. 

Almost from the first day of my arrival I became 
well acquainted by sight with the dignified looking 
proprietor of home and factory, who did not seem 
to pay overmuch attention to his business, but spent 
a considerable portion of his time at the Cafe Maure, 
which fronted the avenue of plane trees, where they 
met the furthest corner of our narrow street. 
Under their leafy shade he sat every afternoon, 



198 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

surrounded by a little group of friends, listening to 
the strains of weird Arab music which drifted out 
of the open windows of the cafe; its interior al- 
most entirely concealed by masses of pink and red 
ivy geraniums which clung about the walls. 

In the evening after dinner, if I took a stroll in 
that direction, or went to the Post Office nearby, 
with letters that must catch the early morning mail; 
there he was again playing at dominoes, or draughts, 
with a crony of his own years, which were considera- 
ble, for his ample beard was plentifully streaked 
with grey. Mahomed Azzizi had undoubtedly seen 
his best days, they lay behind him: perhaps that was 
why he was taking life so easily now. 

It was rather a surprise, therefore, to see hini 
starting for Algiers one morning by the steam tram, 
which halts outside the Zaccar Gate, and as he was 
accompanied by a boy carrying a wonderfully dec- 
orated box, presumably his errand was on business 
and his stay would be a prolonged one. The per- 
sonal luggage of the average Arab when he travels 
is not usually extensive and for a day or two only it 
is practically nil. His foreman saw him off with 
the deference and respect he invariably showed his 
employer, who seemed to depend and lean upon the 
younger man, almost as on a son. Abdul-Ahmed 
certainly appeared to be alert and intelligent enough; 
In fact slightly too much so. His face had a crafty 
cruel look and I often thought what an ugly 
customer he would be to tackle if he were roused 
out of his habitually quiet demeanour. 



THE WIFE OF MAHOMED AZZIZI 199 

That same evening I noticed him again, passing 
by the hotel very slowly, unlike his wont and gazing 
up at the windows opposite, almost as if he expected 
them to open, or some signal to come from within. 
In fact, he arrested his steps altogether just in front 
of the house, passing his hand over his beard In a 
meditative way : but If the inmates saw him standing 
thus, they made no sign. 

Abdul-Ahmed had not long gone by, however, 
when a sharp click aroused my attention. The shut- 
ters opened suddenly, a figure shrouded in some dark 
stuff slid out between and, closing them behind her, 
sank Into a corner of the balcony. 

In the distance I could hear the baby cry. 

Although nearly eight o'clock we had not reached 
the longest day, so It was still light; quite light 
enough for a man who crossed the road from the ho- 
tel to see the face Fathlma-Zorah unveiled to him. 
Then, raising herself with a languorous, panther- 
like gesture, she returned as she had come from her 
prison and he, flinging away the cigar he had been 
smoking, walked away rapidly down the street. 

It was the " Beau Monsieur," as he had been 
christened by the town, and certainly he was an ex- 
ceptionally tall and fine looking man. Too fair to 
be a Frenchman I had thought on first seeing him: 
more like a Fleming, with his somewhat florid look, 
which might possibly deepen In the future and . . . 
but why needlessly anticipate? 

It happened that when I arrived at the hotel, 
amongst a great many men I was the only woman 



200 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

and the negro waiter hit upon the brilliant idea of 
putting me at a table in the exact centre of the room 
under the electric light. This stroke of genius not 
quite pleasing me, I requested a place near one of 
the windows at the side, whereupon my next meal 
found me facing the table of the Beau Monsieur. 
This was scarcely less ridiculous and disconcerting, 
for he seemed so conceited as to be quite capable of 
thinking I had purposely made a change for the 
purpose of sitting opposite to him. Madame 
Mathieu evidently thought so too, for next day she 
plunged, a propos of nothing, into a little history of 
the fascinating gentleman. She told me he was the 
representative of a Belgian Company trading in Iron 
and copper : that he was reputed to be as rich as he 
was handsome: that he only took his meals at the 
hotel and lived at a villa on the other side of the 
factory. Such a pretty villa, shut in by a shrubbery 
and high gates, with French windows opening on to 
a long low verandah and everywhere the most beau- 
tiful flowers. All this and more in a breath, before 
it was possible to get a word in edgeways to stop her 
garrulity, or turn the flood of words into another 
channel. 

Twice every day, consequently, I had been treated' 
to the felicity of contemplating — surreptitiously — 
the handsome countenance of the Beau Monsieur 
until the morning of the 24th June. I awoke to find 
the whole hotel in an uproar, turned inside out and 
upside down, so to speak, for the wedding festivities 
of a tirailleur and his bride. The big dining room 



THE WIFE OF MAHOMED AZZIZI 201 

was required for the supper and even at breakfast 
everyone was poked into a back parlour with the 
artisans and Arabs, except myself. Madame kindly 
put me into her own little sitting room, for which I 
was most truly grateful on account of the intense 
heat. Midsummer Day in that eyrie of North Af- 
rica is not an experience I shall feel inclined to re- 
peat. 

Breakfast had been earlier than usual to suit the 
harried waiter and as I entered the hall the news- 
vendor came into the street crying " Depeche ! 
Depeche ! L'Echo Alger ! " so I went to the en- 
trance to buy one. At that moment the Beau Mon- 
sieur came out of the parlour and passed me where 
I stood, petrified with surprise at seeing a closely 
veiled figure on the balcony opposite fling down a 
sou. Fathima-Zorah? . . . She could not read 
surely! Almost simultaneously the house door 
opened and Hadda took in the paper the newsboy 
gave her, but I could hardly see the old woman for 
the big figure of the Fleming was between us now. 
He seemed to take the Depeche quickly from her 
and . . . pay for it. I distinctly heard the chink 
of money and one coin dropped with a clang on 
the tiles. The retreating newsboy heard it too and 
turned back, thinking no doubt someone had thrown 
him a sou. I tossed him my forgotten ha'penny 
which was still reposing in the palm of my hand. 

So also Abdul-Ahmed heard it, who had suddenly 
dropped amongst us from the clouds. He looked 
ghastly in his fury and spat after the departing figure 



202 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

of the unconscious roumi, who had not even seen 
him. 

The whole affair was over In a few seconds. In 
a much shorter time than It takes to tell, all the act- 
ors In this mysterious little Incident had completely 
vanished leaving me, bewildered and alone, in the 
street. 

The next event of that strange stifling day and 
night was the arrival of the wedding party In the 
very late afternoon. They all came together in a 
body headed by a demure young bride and a good 
looking groom. Such a picturesque crowd they 
made, filing down the road two and two; the girls 
In new gay cotton gowns and the men nearly all in 
short blue jackets, white pantaloons and red fez: 
the uniform of the principal regiment stationed In 
the town. The bride's father, a wealthy Jew, was 
resplendent in grey cloth beautifully braided in black 
and a rose coloured sash round his very large waist. 
At the tail end of the procession followed a few 
Mokhazni and Arabs In gala attire. There must 
have been a hundred and fifty, all told, and they 
seemed wonderfully little affected by the sirocco, 
which had left me in the condition of chewed twine. 

When they were all well Inside, I happened to 
look Idly across at my opposite neighbour's, and for 
the second time that day, fairly gasped at the daring 
conduct of Fathlma-Zorah. She had flung the shut- 
ters wide open and was busily occupied in encircling 
her eyes with koh'eul,'^ holding a little glass In her 

1 A black powder ; a cosmetic. 



THE WIFE OF MAHOMED AZZIZI 203 

other hand. No doubt she had needed light for 
this dehcate operation of the toilette and she was 
sufficiently far back in the room not to be observed 
from the street. Still, it seemed a somewhat reck- 
less proceeding for one, as a rule, so jealously 
guarded. 

Where had old Mahomed Azzizi found this won- 
derful jewel that he tried to conceal within the cas- 
ket of his home? There was a foreign, barbaric, 
altogether untamed look about her such as I had 
not seen in any Arab woman, and she reminded me 
of the Moroccan acrobats who had performed one 
afternoon behind the ivy clad minaret in the heart 
of the town. Her face was too much in shadow for 
me to distinguish her features : it was her movements 
that were so fascinating when she laid down the 
mirror and strayed idly, restlessly about the room as 
If waiting . . .waiting. ... 

She was so beautifully dressed and decked with 
jewels that I wondered if she had remembered 
that this was Midsummer Night, when in the 
Mogh'reh ^ (supposing that to be her country) great 
fetes are held in honour of the Eternal Sun. Or, 
was It through seeing the wedding party opposite 
that the idea had come to her to attire herself as if 
for her own bridal? The heavy odour of musk 
reached me and seemed to fill the hot air. 

Presently, she caught up a pale cream coloured 
melh'afa, such as the women wear here, and rolling 
it round herself came right up to the window. The 
2 Morocco. 



204 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

contrast to her late gay apparel was so violent and 
sudden that, in the fast fading daylight, it looked 
like a shroud. She stepped on to the balcony ; took 
a rapid survey of the empty street; slid back between 
the shutters and closed them from within. I never 
saw her again. 

Meanwhile the fun downstairs waxed fast and 
furious. Who would have conceived that any num- 
ber of people short of a thousand could make such a 
terrific din. Mercy! . . . What a terrible scream 
. . . drowned In a shout of masculine laughter. It 
was hopeless to try and read, so, very reluctantly, I 
put down my book and wandered back aimlessly to 
the balcony again. The house opposite was quiet 
and all In darkness, but there was a light in the fac- 
tory and someone was working there. Abdul-Ah- 
med, no doubt, that good and zealous servant of the 
absent Mahomed Azzizi. How well he looked 
after his master's Interests. 

Time dragged on rather heavily for me until 
the festive party below stairs began at last to break 
up and as there were really hopeful signs of their 
departure, I started preliminary preparations to go 
to bed. The young folk still hung about for some 
time saying their final goodnlghts in the street be- 
fore dispersing In different directions, and watching 
them troop off I noticed the light had gone out In the 
factory. Soon after my own followed suit. 

A few days elapsed before the big dining room 
was ready again, for Madame Mathieu had taken 
advantage of the enforced upset to call in the white- 



THE WIFE OF MAHOMED AZZIZI 205 

washers and have a thorough spring clean. When, 
in company with the others who frequented the res- 
taurant, I took my seat once more in my usual place, 
what was my surprise to find that, not only the Beau 
Monsieur, but his table and chair also were gone, 
and a blank space lay between me and the newly 
distempered wall. 

" Has the Belgian gentleman gone? " I aske'd the 
waiter casually, when he brought the soup. 

The negro gave me a scared look: then said ab- 
ruptly in a whisper, " He's dead ! " 

" Dead ! " I echoed incredulously. The man had 
seemed so full of vitality it was impossible to think 
of him except as very much alive. That was why 
the table had been removed altogether then. Afri- 
cans believe in revenants and no doubt the waiter 
thought the dead man might walk in, take his accus- 
tomed seat and sign to him as he had done In life. 

"When did he die? Was it an accident?" I 
queried at the arrival of the next course, but so man- 
ifest was his reluctance to talk about the subject that 
I gave it up and went to Madame after dinner for 
details of this mystery. She too was rather reticent 
at first, but her tongue, once fairly started, ran on 
from long habit and very soon I was In possession 
of the facts so far as she knew them. 

It seemed that when the Beau Monsieur no longer 
came for his meals Madame thought at first he had 
gone away, but of that on former occasions he had 
always given due notice. Then It occurred to her 
that he might be angry at being put Into the back 



2o6 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

parlour, so she sent her husband to find out If this, 
or anything else were the reason, for he was a good 
customer and she did not wish to lose him. 

When Mathleu arrived at the villa he could not 
make anyone hear, so he knocked at a window that 
was ajar, and receiving no response walked into the 
room, and from that into the adjoining apartment, 
for he saw the figure of the Beau Monsieur lying 
on the bed. He was fully dressed with the coverlet 
drawn up over him — so It was discovered subse- 
quently, for the horrified Mathleu had at once rushed 
off to the police. There were no signs of violence 
and the room was quite undisturbed : nothing seemed 
to have been touched, or taken from It. In the lit- 
tle salon were the remains of a meal. Wine had 
been spilled on the table, but strangely enough there 
was no bottle, or glass, to be seen. 

Some said It was murder: some said suicide. It 
was all a terrible mystery at present. Parts of the 
body had been sent to Algiers and Mathleu would 
have to attend the enquiry, though the Beau Mon- 
sieur must have been dead for about two days when 
he found him yesterday morning. Such a fine hand- 
some gentleman . . . but I heard no more, for my 
mind had seized upon " dead for about two days 
when he found him yesterday morning." . . . One 
Incident after another came back to memory: little 
things that fitted themselves into place as In a puz- 
zle. Of course there was not the slightest doubt 
about it. This awful tragedy had happened on 
Midsummer Night. 



CHAPTER XX 

THE COMING OF THE BRIDE 

" We are sons of Adrar Boudfel: ^ every morn- 
ing we mlute it.'' Kabyle Saying. 

July iind, 1 9 13. 

BETWEEN the Mediterranean on the north 
and the great chain of Snow Mountains 
which finish to the west in the " Pass of the 
Reed" and eastwards by 'the "Pass of the Law," 
lies the Land of Great Kabylia, with its many tribes 
of mountain shepherds, who, in their hill fastnesses, 
succeeded In keeping the world at bay from early 
Roman times, till the French at last subdued them 
little more than half a century ago. 

Martins, Nightingales, Larks, Hermits, Sorcerers, 
Snails, People of the Mountains, Mountaineers, Sons 
of Mohammed, Moses and Joseph, or of The Brave, 
are but a few of the characteristic names these dwell- 
ers in the villages, which crown the hill tops, have 
called themselves. Their hamlets too bear equally 
descriptive titles of their situation, overtopped and 
sheltered by the Djurdjura Mountains, as Europe 
prefers to call the peaks, snow capped for half the 
year, which band them in. 

1 The great Range of Snow Mountains 

207 



2o8 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

In Great Kabylia it Is possible to live on the Big 
Little Mountain ; on the Top of the Steep Slope, or 
of The Column; amongst the Bad Stony Places; on 
the Little Hill of the Blacksmiths, or that of the Pil- 
grims; on the Excrescence of Dried Figs; on the 
Little Rock; even in a Puff of Smoke or a Vaulted 
Tomb. They are not, it must be granted, altogether 
attractive titles especially to lazy people, but the 
builders of the birds' nests had to bear in mind that, 
whereas the slope of a hill may be cultivated for 
man's benefit, the stony wind-swept peaks are value- 
less, and every foot of promising soil is worth more 
than any considerations of mere comfort in a poor 
country, where Nature is a hard, ungenerous 
Mother. 

The long backbone of bare arid ridges, with Leila 
Khadldja, its highest point, looks down with lofty 
condescension on these clusters of brown houses of 
stone and mud mortar, dominated by a whitewashed 
Djemmd^ and perhaps as well by a kouha with its 
conical top and crenelated corners. 

Then, though the Great Snow Mountains barred 
out the stranger in the past, neighbours were not al- 
ways friends. Each village jealously guarded its 
pasturage from flocks which might stray uninvited : 
here alone was a frequent cause of trouble. Worse 
feuds were handed down from one generation to an- 
other and ended perhaps in the extinction of whole 
families. A blood debt was held to be legal; as well 

2 Literally meeting place, I. e., mosque. 



THE COMING OF THE BRIDE 209 

was it socially binding (even In the same village) and 
could never be satisfied in coin as in the Valley of 
the Sahel. A life was worth a life amongst the 
Kabyles of the Djurdjura. Hill tops, therefore, 
afforded some measure of security and when it hap- 
pens that a clump of houses He on a sheltered pla- 
teau, it must have been a m'rahet who settled there 
originally and perhaps founded a zaoui'a, for the 
sacred character of building and inhabitants would 
alone exempt them from all attack. 

In these peaceful times, held In a close grip of 
European civilisation, the landscape is altogether 
charming and unique, with smiling villages, dotted 
about in every direction, on different heights thrown 
up by eruptions of a byegone age long before our 
first ancestors made their appearance. The harvest 
has just been gathered in and on a plateau, oxen 
yoked two, or three, abreast tread out the golden 
corn; for in the fields of Great Kabylia, Time has 
stayed his footsteps two thousand years or more, as 
if loth to sweep off the earth's entire surface all the 
picturesque and ancient ways of man. It was out- 
side the little hamlet of Icherridhen that I saw them, 
on my way to visit the Sons of John at their village 
of the Sweet-Scented Evergreen Trees quite near to 
The Tower of the Steeple Jack. 

Great doings were afoot for an important member 
of this fairly large community was awaiting his 
bride. She was coming from a village about twen- 
ty-five miles distant and, overnight, his friends had 



210 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

gone to fetch her and form an escort of honour to 
protect her on this, no doubt the longest — perhaps 
the only — journey in her young life. 

Long before my arrival I could hear the powder 
speaking and see puffs of smoke rising straight up 
in the clear hot air. My companion, with a gun 
slung over his shoulder fired it off at intervals as we 
climbed up the long narrow straggling street, till we 
reached an empty building ready evidently for our 
reception, for it had been newly swept and there 
were mats and pillows on the ground. 

My invitation had come through the uncle by 
marriage of the bridegroom, whose brother was act- 
ing as host in the usual kindly manner of those for 
whom hospitality is a religious duty. He ordered 
couscous and coffee to be brought and immediately 
the room filled up with men guests, who slipped off 
their shoes at the doorway before entering. So 
alike were these in size, shape and colour, I could 
not help wondering if they get mixed up as top hats 
do in England and if the wrong pair of feet ever go 
away in a better pair of slippers than their very 
own I 

After I had rested my host suggested that he 
would present me to the ladies of the family, for said 
he : " Here we are not savage as they are in the 
South: we do not hide away and veil our women. 
The bride will be veiled to-day and for the festivities 
before her marriage, but never afterwards!" 

I followed him to a large double gate, leading 
into an irregular quadrangle, with buildings on either 



THE COMING OF THE BRIDE 211 

side, on rising ground, finishing at the back by a 
stairway In the hill. Up as far as the lowest step, 
massed together on this stony sloping rockery 
bloomed the most gorgeous flowers; not wild, nor 
yet cultivated, but In favour before hot-house ex- 
otics had come to stay with us. A magnificent bridal 
bouquet mostly red and yellow; the colours of love 
and desire; the hues, which combined, project the 
sacred essence. Some of the blossoms were still in 
bud; some half opened, but in all their first fresh- 
ness; others in the fulness of bloom. Yellow wall- 
flowers there were In great profusion, shading into 
red and even to a dull brown. Sunflowers turned 
their faces toward the giver of light, who could not 
reach them beneath the pent roofs of long low 
sheds. Gorgeous peonies of all shades; popples, 
red, yellow and white; jonquils crimson tipped; 
African marigolds, In their own native land, 
flaunted themselves gaudily before my astonished 
gaze. 

"How beautiful! " I cried to the Kabyle beside 
me. " You do well not to hide your women when 
they are so fine to look upon as these 1 " He stared 
at me blankly: he could not understand my admira- 
tion! 

They were all grouped together, numbering about 
a hundred; women, girls and little ones awaiting the 
signal to go forth and meet their new kinswoman. 
It came now with a fusillade and music and an an- 
nouncement from my breathless and excited friend, 
Amou, that the bride had arrived at the next village, 



212 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

about two miles away, and It was time for us to 
start. We were ahead for a time, he and I, with 
the three musicians immediately behind us; but the 
pace was too great for me and at a point where two 
roads ran parallel, but one much higher than the 
other, I was glad to take a seat for a while on the 
latter. From my perch, I could look down on the 
procession as It wound along the hill sides, between 
the green of the figtrees, or out on the open highway 
In the full glare of the sun. What a splendid phy- 
sique the women had, with the erect carriage which 
comes of carrying a water jar poised on the head; 
and what a joy It was to see them walk as they 
swept on their way In their striped petticoats of red 
and yellow ! Tiny girls. In gay hued gandouras, 
covered over with white pinafore. frocks dotted with 
round coloured moons, were now at this end, now at 
the other; everyone of them rouged like their moth- 
ers with khalouk In great even patches, covering 
nearly the whole of their little fat cheeks. 

In that great crowd how grave everybody was : 
not a laugh, or even a smile animated any one of 
the faces ! Now and again the women united In the 
shrill lou-Iou that is such a feature of all festivals; 
or the men fired their rifles and were answered from 
some neighbouring hamlet below, or above us, on Its 
verdant height. Thus we traversed about a mile. 

Quite suddenly we came upon the bridal cortege : 
a little group on muleback drawn up together, await- 
ing our advent round a wide projection of rock, 
which had hidden us from each other. The ad- 



THE COMING OF THE BRIDE 213 

vance guard of our party fired a salute which set the 
mules dancing and the bride's was perilously near 
the edge of the ravine. Amongst her escort was an 
elderly dame with a pronounced double chin which 
no amount of yellow spangled gauze could hide ; and 
there were several men about her, friends of the 
bridegroom who had gone to fetch her the previous 
day. She rode pillion behind the aunt of her fiance, 
who was clad and veiled completely in green of the 
Nile, for she was the " bringer " of the bride and 
here again was a colour symbol lingering on from 
some remote period of time. The little maid her- 
self was draped in white and pale yellow and no 
doubt it was the rearing of the pony that had shaken 
back the folds from her face, revealing a pair of 
lustrous brown eyes like those of a startled gazelle 
and cheeks flushed pink, with excitement as well as 
khalouk. 

Wishing her such happiness as may be desired by 
a woman of the Djurdjura, at the bend of the road, 
at the beginning of her new life, I left her in com- 
pany with the men and women, who had so greatly 
welcomed her in their midst and whom she would 
soon count amongst her kindred. With them she 
pursued the rest of her journey to the young husband 
awaiting her with his gifts under the shade of the 
Sweet-Scented Evergreen Trees, whom she would 
not even see until she was his wife. 



CHAPTER XXI 

THE GREAT FAST 

" Toi qui es Ramadhane, celui qui, tous les ans, 
nous fait, souffrir de la faim et de la soif." 

ISABELLE EbERHARDT. 

August i4.th, 1913. 

IN the brown villages of Kabylie, flecked here 
and there with white, that crown the hill tops 
of this mountainous land, for the greater part 
of the year to all appearances, the Faith of Islam 
languishes and is nigh unto death. That they are 
not good Mussulmen is a constant reproach against 
the inhabitants, which brings them into contempt 
with Arabs and M'Zabites alike — Berbers all — 
who would scorn to be thought akin In any way to 
these lax co-religionists and despised eaters of 
acorns. 

By way of explanation, or excuse may be, the 
Kabyles say that the observances of the Plains and 
of the Plateaux are not suited to dwellers on the 
slopes of Djurdjura and In Sahel ; and this they carry 
to an extreme in some hamlets where even the 
djemmd has been allowed to fall into such a state 
of disrepair that it cannot be used, and yet no at- 
tempt is made to build it up again. 

di4 



THE GREAT FAST 2iSj 

After a prolonged stay In the South, it comes as a: 
miss in one's life not to hear the appeal of the criers 
as they mark the passing of the day. Strange too 
it is, beyond belief, to find that all the crowd by the 
roadside sleeps through the passing of Dhoiir; ^ that 
at El-Aser ^ and Mogh'reb,^ of the hundreds who go 
by intent on business, not anyone will stay his steps 
awhile to say a prayer. Thus the religion, which is 
so much in evidence throughout the Sahara, perme- 
ating every act of life, public and private, here in 
Kabylie seems conspicuous by its absence; or, at 
least, as if it had no grip whatever on the existence 
of these toiling mountaineers. 

Then, suddenly, on the night of the ninth moon 
after Achoura, always ten days earlier than in the 
previous year, when the beautiful silver crescent, 
the emblem of Islam, Is hardly yet shaped and dis- 
plays but a milky paleness on a dark clear back- 
ground of sky, the Kabyles, men and women, show 
the world that they are Mussulmen all and bear testi- 
mony to their Faith. For a month whilst that moon 
waxes to the full and then slowly wanes until it dis- 
appears, they keep, rigidly and sincerely, the hardest 
careme of any religion of the world, the Great Fast 
of Ramadhane. 

Like the Great Feasts, the rites of abstinence date 
from far back in the history of mankind, when prim- 
itives, hardly above the level of the animal, believed 

^ 2nd invocation of the day. 
2 3rd invocation of the day. 
^4th invocation of the day. 



2i6 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

that the incidents of their own existence acted and 
reacted on the plant hfe by which they were sur- 
rounded; that as man reproduced his species so the 
vegetation was abundant and when the harvest had 
been gathered in he controlled his bodily appetites 
to be in unison with Mother Earth, as she rested to 
renew the forces temporarily exhausted by her 
fecundity. The spirit of that idea, that first disci- 
pline of the savage state which gradually led on to 
higher forms of civilisation has been lost in the 
progress of the world, but its outward manifestation 
still survives as a religious observance common to 
all earlier forms of creed. 

This year, it so happens that Ramadhane has 
fallen in the hottest month, when the dry scorching 
air is rarely freshened by the precious drops a rain 
cloud sends to earth; when the sirocco is a frequent 
visitor parching the throat and lips and creating a 
thirst which is fiendish in its intensity and can, at 
best, be scarcely assuaged. Yet, from the first hour 
after midnight till the setting of the morrow's sun, 
no water, no food must pass the lips of these poor 
suffering mortals, who are my near and kindly neigh- 
bours now. This morning only I arrived at a vil- 
lage, the name of which sounds like a prolonged 
sneeze, and have been given a lodging in a school- 
house, fortunately empty in holiday time. 

It is a white-washed building, close to the en- 
trance of the village and abutting on the open air 
meeting place of the inferior Sof ^ for, strangely 

* Political party* 



THE GREAT FAST 217 

enough, every village is like a " house divided 
against itself." In It there are Invariably two par- 
ties, more or less at enmity with one another and 
separated by an acknowledged and definite geograph- 
ical boundary. If a quarrel is started every man 
rallies around the member of his own Sof and rifles 
and blunderbusses appear from hiding places in a 
most surprising number considering the strict laws 
(impossible to enforce) against the carrying of arms 
by natives. 

Sometimes It happens that a man buys a wife, 
whom he particularly fancies, from the enemy's ter- 
ritory, but If so, she goes out from her own kith and 
kin for the rest of her days and has nothing more 
to say to the friends of her childhood who live within 
a few yards of her home. 

It is difficult to find a reason for so curious and 
apparently unfortunate an arrangement, for the 
legend which Is connected with It seems Inadequate 
especially after a great lapse of time; and not ap- 
plicable, one would imagine, to all villages without 
exception. 

In the far away past, it is said, a certain couple, 
very devoted to each other, owned a negro slave 
who, for some reason best known to himself, which 
history has not divulged, was determined to sepa- 
rate them. He first worked on the woman's feel- 
ings by telling her that misfortune was coming speed- 
ily as her husband had found a new wife whom he 
was about to marry, younger and prettier than her- 
self, v/hose charms had faded. Having fully per- 



2i8 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

suaded the unhappy creature of the truth of his 
statements, the slave told her the one chance of pre- 
serving her present influence over her husband was 
by shaving off half his beard at night as he lay asleep. 
As soon as his victim had expressed her willingness 
to try and keep her man by any means in her power, 
the negro sought out his master to tell him that, 
without doubt, his wife was plotting to kill him and 
if he would watch at night, instead of sleeping, he 
would find her standing beside him with a razor in 
her hand. This came to pass as the wretch had 
been able to predict with such confidence and the 
husband, fully believing in this apparent proof of 
his wife's guilt, struck her with violence, so that 
she fell dead. Retribution swiftly followed on his 
rash act for her father, who lived in another quar- 
ter of the village, called his friendS' together to 
help him and murdered his son-in-law on the thresh- 
old of his house. Thus was started a blood feud 
between two families, kept up from generation to 
generation, not only between themselves but divid- 
ing in two inimical sections the inhabitants of every 
village throughout the land. 

In the little hamlet where I am at present located 
the line of demarcation starts about half way up 
the hill with a ruined and picturesque archway, the 
gate to the enemy's camp. On its further side are 
two long adjoining sheds well furnished with wide 
stone dokanat where, on this tenth afternoon of 
Ramadhane the men of the superior Soff had fore- 
gathered and were stretched out at full length, ex- 



THE GREAT FAST 219 

hausted with hunger and awaiting with patient resig- 
nation the cannon from Fort National, which an- 
nounces each evening to all these starving people 
that the sun has set at last and they may eat. 

The narrow passage, which runs right away 
through the quaint club houses, is also, it would 
seem, the main artery of the village for, as I too 
rested on a dokana near the lower entrance, the 
boys came in from the fields, or pasturage, at little 
intervals apart, driving before them flocks of goats 
and sheep, sometimes headed by a donkey, which 
pushed against and nosed each other as they clam- 
bered up the rude steep steps, covering us with dust. 
This and the sight of a man opposite to me, whose 
face grew more and more leaden in hue, as the min- 
utes passed slowly by, drove me out to the fountain 
right away down at the foot of a long hill, that I 
could see the clothes of the women and girls and ad- 
mire their faces which are, now and then, as charm- 
ing as their statuesque figures and pose. In par- 
ties of two and three or even half a dozen, follow- 
ing each other single file, they tripped lightly along 
the different winding tracks, and their gay striped 
petticoats, coloured foutas and guenader, shewed up 
well against the trees and the verdure of the slopes. 

"We are nothing to look at," cried one cheery 
body, more or less In rags, as she passed with her 
companions. " Wait awhile, the younger and 
richer ones are coming behind in their finery and jew- 
els: we are ugly and old! " Then, sure enough a 
troop of merry girls arrived and one small mite 



220 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

with them, very Important, an amulet hanging be- 
low her waistbelt at the back and swaying with the 
movements of her plump little person, as she carried 
her jar, full of water, steadily up the steep ascent. 
The old fashioned pottery is delightful to the eye 
but when filled the weight Is unthinkable and it is 
little wonder that the women are replacing their 
heavy jars by petrol tins: it were a sin to wish it 
otherwise merely to please the aesthetic sense. Be- 
sides the white shining metal is not without its charm 
when the sun catches at It between the overhanging 
branches; plays about the corners, taking off the 
squareness of the vessel with its glint and Illumines 
a pretty face below. 

The first comer Is dark, with crisp curly hair 
bushed out a little above her ears, as the women 
wear It here before they turn their plaits up under 
their mendilat. Evidently in her there existed a 
strong admixture of negro blood, though the lips 
were not so full and coarse as might be expected. 
The next profile, which she almost hid In passing, 
had a Semitic look about the nose and cheek, and 
the third girl, following behind, might have hailed 
from Northern Europe with so white a skin, her 
aquiline nose and blue grey eyes. In violent con- 
trast, her hair was black as night, dull-looking, al- 
most in ropes. Like many another of her sex the 
world over, she had spoiled herself in obedience to 
the decrees of Dame Fashion, who only permits her 
votaries in Kabylle a coiffure that shall vie In colour- 
ing with bog oak. Those ugly dyed tresses should 



THE GREAT FAST 221 

have been soft and fine and glossy, of a pale golden 
brown. In their anxiety to be a la mode little fair 
girls begin the darkening process when quite young 
and it is a funny sight to see them bending over a 
wash tub full of a preparation of oak apple, just like 
ink, pouring it over their tousled heads, till it streams 
down their faces making niggers of them for the 
nonce. Others prefer an ointment and tie up their 
hair In cotton bandages for three days to produce 
this bizarre result. Therein, no doubt the charm ! 
It is the unusual that attracts and the variety of type 
amongst these hill women, especially near the West- 
ern sea gate of Kabylie, where dwell the Ait Oua- 
guennon whose loveliness is proverbial in their own 
country. 

Strangely enough this great mixture of race, which 
has beautified the women, seems to have robbed the 
Kabyle men of any claims to good appearance. As a 
rule, they lack the appearance of breeding, the fine 
stately manner and slow gestures of the Arabs. In 
fact they are mongrels and mostly look it. This 
struck me forcibly when I neared my lodging again 
and took a long look at the little hungry crowd be- 
longing to my Sof. It had increased considerably 
during my absence and now formed an extended semi- 
circle, like a horse shoe, facing a stove from which 
arose a fragrant scent of coffee. " These last mo- 
ments are the most feverish of all in the day," 
wrote one who had rigorously kept the Fast and I 
could realise it from the stillness that prevailed; 
the tenseness of tired limbs kept under a grim con- 



222 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

trol, the look of anxious expectancy depicted on those 
pale and weary countenances. All eyes were 
turned towards the West; towards the mighty orb 
which plays so great a role In men's lives, but even 
more so where its rays burn fiercest. The red disk, 
inflaming the sky with rays of vivid orange shot 
through with crimson, was sinking slowly behind 
the hills . . . now, nothing to be seen but a 
golden rim . . . even the radiance was fading . . . 
was gone. The sun had set I Strained ears caught 
the welcome sound of distant cannon which an- 
nounced the breaking of the Fast. Quickly In ev- 
ery man's hands a little cup. Relief filled all the 
air — an immense relief. Praise be to God! the 
sufferings of another day were ended. Nature had 
again been fought successfully and vanquished. 
Welcome night had brought release from the spell 
imposed upon them by their creed. 




CHAPTER XXII 

A FETE OF RAMADHANE 

" Attitudes graves, sourires discrets, beaucoup de 
tristesse inconsciente souvents, gestes lents et 
rhythmes balancement voluptueux des hanches" 

ISABELLE EbERHARDT. 

August 20th, 19 13. 
iWO evenings in the week, throughout Ra- 
madhane, there are rejoicings in my village 
in honour of the boys, who are keeping the 
Great Fast for the very first time. They have ar- 
rived at the dignity and, with it, the responsibilities 
of manhood : a great event this, in their young lives, 
equivalent to a coming of age in the West. As such, 
it should certainly be marked in the Kabyle Calen- 
dar of youth, and it may be that these entertainments 
relax the strain and weariness of the month of ab- 
stinence for old and young alike. It were surely an 
unwise creed that forbade festivities during the stren- 
uous Fast it has enjoined, thus making too impossi- 
ble a demand upon poor human nature during the 
Mussulman Lent. 

On Tuesdays and Saturdays then, Market days 
both — the one at Michelet, the other at Tizi-Ou- 
zou — always distinctive in the \i^eek's work, the 

223 



224 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

revels of my Sof begin with the rising of the moon 
and last far into the night. It is scarcely worth 
while to snatch at sleep when in the darkness of the 
morrow, at i A. M. at latest, food should be eaten 
preparatory to a fast of nearly eighteen hours, dur- 
ing most of which must be borne, with patient resig- 
nation, the burden and heat of a strenuous day. 

Where the fete will be held, in which house, or 
courtyard, is not announced till the very last moment; 
but the beating of the tomtoms, heard all over the 
village, soon fixes the locality and I have even seen 
men of the rival Sof stroll down, to look on at the 
proceedings, attracted perhaps by the superior 
charms of Zena; Noowahra's well balanced move- 
ments; or Fathma's voluptuous grace. 

Last night a large quadrangle was chosen, formed 
by huts on three sides and on the fourth, a bank of 
earth, which had been built up to the level of a hab- 
itation, much higher on the slope of the hill than any 
of its near neighbours. 

Like chattering birds on a telegraph wire, a row 
of tiny laughing girls clung to the edge of the plat- 
form and looked down on their elders, crouched in 
close ranks below, their mendilat fluttering in the 
soft breeze, their heads bending and swaying, as 
do the night flowers, which only unfold to honour 
the moon. A fitful light fell upon them all, from 
candles which were fixed on excrescences jutting out 
from the mud walls and not diflicult to find, and 
from a strange little oil lamp, a relic of old Roman 
days held by a damsel, who stood within a doorway 



A FETE OF RAMADHANE 225 

shielding the leaping flame with her henneh tinted 
hand. Its flare had more the effect of illuminating 
herself than anything or anyone else ; her own pretty 
oval face with its clear skin framed by dark bands of 
hair and the vivid green and red of the silk kerchief, 
which enveloped her head. A gay garden of girls, 
this group, all clad In their finery and mostly wear- 
ing a striped fouta of silk, over a chemise. In the 
fashion somewhat of a pinafore, brooched in front 
on both shoulders and puffed out fully above a wide 
multicolored, or red scarf, which encircled the waist. 
The band served also to gird In a veiling of white 
muslin, which draped them at the back from neck to 
heel and which, continuing in long wide sleeves the 
whole length of the arm to the finger tips, during the 
rhythmic movements of the dance, gave a delightful 
impression of wings. 

Immediately facing them, but separated by an 
open space — none too large — left clear for the 
dancer, was a group of men, sitting, lounging, or 
crouched up against the walls of a low rectangular 
hut, which lay entirely In shadow. The whole of 
the front row was occupied by the musicians, sup- 
plemented by an orchestra of seven singers, who 
stood In an Irregular line, shoulder to shoulder so 
far as their varying heights permitted, and kept up a 
continuous chant, beating their hands together In uni- 
son and with tremendous force. It seemed their 
especial business to inspire the dancer with their own 
astonishing enthusiasm. Occasionally they would 
turn to each other when repeating certain portions 



226 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

of the song, as if in earnest conversation, but always 
clapping, clapping, with unflagging energy and zeal. 

There were many tunes and measures. Some- 
times a girl would attempt one too quick for her 
powers, or unsuited to her style and with a diffident, 
apologetic smile, she would fall back into the ranks 
amongst the rest and let another take her place. 

A very unprepossessing old lady, in dull and un- 
tidy garments, acted as hostess. She, it was, who 
chose the dancers, calling upon them one at a time, 
except in the case of two tinies who made their debut 
before their little world in company, and with great 
success. 

The night wore on. The crowd of men increased 
and extended along both sides of their portion of the 
square, yet never infringing on, or mingling with the 
smaller group of women. The quaint Roman ves- 
sel, exhausted of oil, flared up suddenly, with a last 
efl^ort, and went out. The candles burned low and 
were extinguished finally by the night wind. Need- 
less to replace them, for the moon at the full, which 
had been sailing slowly upwards in the heavens, was 
right above us now; seemed hanging from a dark 
and starless sky, like a radiant silver lamp, flooding 
all the court with light. 

The musicians, who had rested awhile, took up 
their Instruments again with renewed zest. " In- 
chah-Allah, In-chah-Allah," chanted the chorus, beat- 
ing their hands together. Then, slowly, with infinite 
grace in every gesture, out from amongst the women, 
stepped Barbousha, premere danseuse of them all, 



A FfiTE OF RAMADHANE 227 

letting those she passed by arrange her draperies for 
her, as If she were a queen. When she reached the 
open space she stood for a moment with outstretched 
arms, like a butterfly half dazed that had been 
tricked by a tropical moon and had awakened think- 
ing It was day. Bands of crimson and gold, striped 
horizontally, ran across her lithe body, down the 
forearms to her wrists, below the silken scarf that 
bound her waist, until they reached her slender an- 
kles and partly hid her naked feet. Her eyes were 
bent on the ground as she danced and her face was 
grave, even to sadness, beneath the fringed ends of 
the mendil knotted just above her brow. One arm 
she bent till her finger tips reached to her shoulder, 
let It drop by her side : repeated the action with the 
other hand and, turning quickly her body. Incredibly 
supple below the waist, rose and fell, keeping time 
with the movements of her feet. With her perfect 
balance she seemed to be soaring. All white she 
was now, a moth in the moonlight with outspread 
snowy wings that fluttered and fluttered . . . anon 
a butterfly, when she faced round again, gorgeously 
painted In crimson and gold. The incarnate spirit 
of her race and sex, always In movement, trying to 
rise, yet scarcely stirring beyond a narrow circle cov- 
ered by her feet, bound by the silver fetters which 
chinked to the measure of the dance. A captive 
winged creature seeking vainly for release, and the 
women screamed their ou-Iou ou-Iou in her honour 
till, wearily, she fluttered back amongst them and 
«ank upon the ground. 



CHAPTER XXIII 

MEKTOUB REBBI 

" Resignation is the great virtue of the Eastern 
races. More religious than Christians j Mussuhnen 
can submit to misfortune better than we can: better 
than we do, they bow before the iiievitable which 
they cannot understand and, their task accom- 
plished, resign themselves to the Will of the Most 
High." Hanoteaux et Letourneux. 

i^rd night of Ramadhane, 

August 26th, 1 9 13. 
OW passing strange it seems that there are 
no special preparations for to-night: that 
the Mussulman world is asleep and appar- 
ently heedless of the Recording Angel, who hovers, 
during these dark hours betwixt sunset and dawn, 
beside the Great Tables of Destiny, which are as 
long as the earth and the sky, and as wide as the 
East and the West. Are the followers of the 
Prophet then devoid of hope, such as sustains the 
majority of human beings in the battle of life: and 
equally so of the fear of misfortune, of loss, of 
death which dogs the footsteps of most of the chil- 
dren of men? True, they have fasted rigorously 
throughout twenty-three long summer days, yet to- 

228 




MEKTOUB REBBI 229 

night, the Night of Destiny, why are they not at 
prayer? Why are they not repenting, even at this 
eleventh hour, the sins and offences which, in nearly 
every case, outweigh the good deeds set against their 
names : they being but rnortals who have erred and 
gone astray? 

A marvellous pen inscribes good and bad actions 
in the little life of each man and the greater, more 
complex, existence of a nation on one side of the 
Register kept by the angels for a year : on the other 
side are the judgments of God. So long is the pen 
that a horseman could not ride its length, even at a 
gallop, in the space of full five hundred years. 

Before morning breaks, all that has happened in 
the past twelve months will have been set down. 
Not that alone ! All those events as yet concealed 
within the womb of Time; all that will be in the un- 
born year; Allah's irrevocable Will; His "unalter- 
able decisions " ^ shall be written before the rising 
of the sun. 

"Inshallah!" (God willingl) the Mussulman 
murmurs, when he forms some plan; when he looks 
to gain some material benefit; before he stumbles 
blindly forward on some step of life's journey, as do 
we all, hoping for the best. 

"It is written!" " Mektoub Rebbi ! " he says, 
with patient resignation, when hopes prove unavail- 
ing and his efforts have been all in vain. 

To a very few, the saints and friends of Allah, it 
is occasionally permitted to gaze in dreams, or vi- 

1 El-Kadr — The night of unalterable decision. 



230 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

slons, on these sacred Tablets : to read on these stone 
pages the destiny reserved for themselves and, more 
often, for others. Of such are the Seers and the 
Prophets: of such was Leila Fathma, whose story 
belongs to the beautiful Pass, which lies between 
Michelet and Maillot, on the further side of the 
Djurdjura Mountains. 

Delightful as Is the drive from Tizl-Ouzou to 
Michelet, it is but a preparation, as It were, for the 
beauties and surprises of the road which leads to the 
great range through a Punch Bowl (the Devil's own 
In hot weather) beyond the Col de Tirouda. To 
begin with the path is quite ordinary In Itself, run- 
ning along the eastern and then on the western side 
of the mountains, but after it crosses a narrow saddle 
between the lower hills and Azerou Tidjer, the au- 
tomobile passes over a series of embankments and 
galleries, then through two small picturesque tun- 
nels. Towering above are high peaks, notably Aze- 
rou-n-Tohour and deep, deep down on the left, two 
quaint Kabyle villages of the most approved pat- 
tern, Takleh and Tirouda. 

So unusual is their position, so encompassed about 
by mountains, so swallowed up in the narrow gorge 
where they have been built; so tiny do the huts ap- 
pear, viewed from some thousand feet above, and so 
unreal as dwellings, that they might well be taken 
as models for the scene of a fairy play, for abodes 
of the little people rather than of grown-up men and 
women. 

Instead, It had been written, that these two peace- 



MEKTOUB REBBI 231 

ful villages, in an almost inaccessible gorge, hardly 
discoverable save at their very approaches, should 
be the centre of a human tragedy, with Leila Fathma 
as the heroine, overborne by her irresistible, relent- 
less fate. 

Moreover, she knew it would be so ! She herself, 
a M'rabta of the tribe of the Illiten, had prophesied 
the coming of the Christians to Kabylie : their con- 
quest of her people : her own captivity: yet . . . she 
hoped on; hoped against hope; against knowledge; 
against what was written! Poor Leila Fathma ! 
She could not realise that " man is but a plaything 
for the caprice of Time ! Ah, yes ! Who struggles 
against fate is always vanquished ! " ^ When the 
French troops Invaded their country, the Illiten, 
counting on her help and protection and also on an 
open passage to the other side of the mountains, 
brought their wives, children and goods to the 
M'rabta and placed them in her care. Then they 
occupied the heights, determined to defend the vil- 
lages at all costs; or at least, to safeguard the flight 
of fugitives, which would be inevitable if they -failed 
to hold their own and drive ofF the enemy. They had 
firm faith In Leila Fathma's supernatural gifts. She 
had been known to heal and to work miracles and 
she had promised to do her utmost for her people. 
It may be that she had come to believe greatly in 
herself and that the elements would aid her in her 
sore necessity, for when she heard the French were 
approaching, she tried to conjure up a storm. 

2 Arab saying. 



232 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

Meantime her brother, the M'rahet Sidi Thareb, 
had been concocting a diplomatic Httle scheme of 
his own, which he proceeded promptly to put into 
execution. He went himself to General Jusuf and 
explained that though he personally was a devoted 
friend of France, he had not been able to convert 
his tribe to his way of thinking. However he had 
come to offer his submission and, as a guarantee of 
his good faith, his services also to the French. He 
was willing to act as their guide and conduct them 
over the best route to the heights, which commanded 
the territory of the Illlten, provided that his own vil- 
lages of Takleh and TIrouda were left entirely un- 
molested. The wily old M'rahet hoped thus to save 
his own property; keep up his sister's reputation 
and take the troops wherever might be most con- 
venient and certainly well out of the range of that 
narrow straight gorge, where the lUiten were de- 
positing their families and their goods with all pos- 
sible speed. 

The French were a little taken aback by the sud- 
den submission of Sidi Thareb, but they were In a 
mountainous country particularly difficult of con- 
quest and glad enough to have two villages neutral, 
as well as an ally. 

They accepted the terms. The movements of the 
Kabyles had puzzled them not a little and at first 
they had concluded the Illlten were already flying 
to the further side of Djurdjura. General Jusuf's 
spies, however, were busy and, all unknown to Sidi 



MEKTOUB REBBI 233 

.Thareb, the French Commander had become aware 
that the tribe's emigration stopped at the heights. 
He immediately ordered a division to occupy the 
Peak of Azrou-n-Tohour, in order to effectually cut 
off the retreat of the enemy, and when that was cap- 
tured, the French became at once completely masters 
of the situation. 

Acting under the orders of Sidi Thareb, the men 
of Takleh and Tirouda had taken no part in this 
engagement and the M'rahet believed that his di- 
plomacy would be crowned with success. Mounted 
on a white mule, he guided the troops of the Brigade 
Gaston along paths on the left side of Ackour and 
carefully avoided any tracks which led to Takleh 
and Tirouda. Although a few shots had been fired 
by stray Kabyles at the French, there had been no 
response from the latter, who were fully occupied 
with their perilous ascent. 

All was quiet: everything was going well. 

Then Fate stepped in and, taking matters Into 
her own hands, she played havoc with the M'rabet's 
best laid plans. She chose a few Zouaves of Gas- 
ton's Brigade, guided by Sidi Thareb, as her tools. 
The irony of it! They sighted some fugitives who 
had been driven out of the first village on Ackour 
by General Jusuf and, unable to resist temptation, 
they took pot shots at them, trying to pick them off 
across the deep ravine by which the two parties were 
separated. The Kabyles were seeking the protec- 
tion of Leila Fathma, but were hampered by their 



234 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

women and children so could only go slowly and the 
Zouaves, dominated by the hunter's instincts, rushed 
after them down the steep descent. 

Panic seized the hunted. As they poured into the 
villages they cried out that the Christians were upon 
them; were slaying right and left. As a matter of 
fact there were but five Frenchmen, but Leila 
Fathma feared the worst and her people began to 
arm. They killed one man and wounded the rest, 
but then other Zouaves, excited by the firing, came 
to the rescue of their comrades. 

The little company of forty or fifty, who arrived, 
stopped short at sight of the armed Kabyles, but hav- 
ing no officer with them, they began to fire and the 
Illlten responded, naturally enough. Then the Zou- 
aves, finding themselves outnumbered, sounded the 
bugle for help and one, slightly wounded, dragged 
himself back to the Brigade and told the whole story 
to a certain Captain Fourchault, renowned for his 
daring. " Our men down there," he cried when he 
heard It. " Sound the charge! " 

The Illlten, thinking the whole French army was 
upon them, fled right and left when officers and men 
came pouring Into the valley and overran It. Then 
followed a general pillage and every house was en- 
tered . . . save one. 

It was the largest In the villages, perhaps the only 
one that might be dignified by the name of " house " 
and was closed and locked. Its inmates silently re- 
fused to open to the enemy. 

Stationing some of his men outside, in case of 



MEKTOUB REBBI 235 

armed resistance, Captain Fourchault ordered that 
the door be broken down. As the first blows fell 
like thunder against the hard wood, it was flung 
back wide from within and on the threshold stood 
Leila Fathma. 

She was clad in magnificent attire and bejewelled 
like an idol. Her cheeks were rouged, her eye- 
brows blackened with koh'eul, her hands stained 
with henneh, her face partially concealed by a white 
veil. She stepped forward with the air of a queen 
amongst her subjects, but as her great dark eyes 
wandered over the faces of the crowd, that filled 
her courtyard, they fell on her brother, Sidi Thareb, 
and some half dozen of his followers, covered with 
the green branches which betokened submission. At 
that sight she faltered and, with a cry of despair, 
flung herself into his arms. 

The signal to clear the house followed and two 
hundred women and children In It were taken cap- 
tive. More French troops had arrived, who 
formed a guard and then began the dreary march 
of the prisoners, up the winding paths of the steep 
valley to Tamesgulda, where they arrived at night- 
fall. All were on foot save Leila Fathma, who 
rode on her mule, with her brother walking beside 
her. 

The little drama of TIrouda was nearly played 
out. 

Next day the M'rahta was brought before the 
French Marshall. Her pride and her courage had 
not deserted her, though hope was gone. 



236 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

When he asked her why her people had broken 
their covenant and fired on the French troops, she 
replied : — 

" It was the Will of Allah ! It is neither your 
fault, nor mine ! Your soldiers broke their ranks 
to force their way into my village. My men de- 
fended themselves. I am your prisoner. I attach 
no blame to you: you have nothing to reproach me 
with. // was written." ^ 

2 Recits de Kabylie by E. Carrey. 



CHAPTER XXIV 

ESSENCE OF ROSES 

The deep red of the ruby and the perfume of 
roses awaken joy." Arab Saying. 

IN her dark stuffy little hut, shut into a square 
court enclosed by grey-brown walls of mud and 
stone, joined at one side by high gates, through 
which she might not pass, Zoowahra languished in 
idle weariness and discontent, pining for the free- 
dom which had once been hers. Like other girls of 
the village, she had run about in barefooted, un- 
veiled liberty all her younger days and even suppos- 
ing the food supply in her poor home ran short at 
times; even if she were obliged to carry heavy jars 
of water up the long winding ascent from the foun- 
tain, it had been in company with merry comrades, 
healthy little animals, happy just to live in the bril- 
liant sunshine and clear air. 

Suddenly came a great change. When barely fif- 
teen she married and, unlike most wives in Kabylie, 
she was hidden away. Her husband, Amalou, was 
greatly enamoured, and furiously jealous, of the 
pretty, slim creature he had first seen dance by the 
light of the moon, not a twelvemonth since, at a 
fete of Ramadhane. She had bewitched him with 

237 



238 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

the swirl of crimson draperies, with the soft glances 
of her languorous eyes and the grace of her lithe 
young form ; and, being swarthy himself, by the pale- 
ness of her waxen skin. She was not a maiden of 
his Soff and it was pure chance that made him obey 
the call of the tomtoms and flutes at the foot of the 
hill and first linger at the back of a little crowd of 
men, then push his way through as soon as Zoowahra 
began to dance. 

Amalou was head waiter at the French hotel 
which fronted a white stone, tree shaded terrace 
posed just above a road that had broken In half the 
slope of another great hill, not two miles away. 
He was able to pay well for his choice, being rich, 
as riches are accounted in the poor little hamlet 
where Zoowahra was born, and when he had sent his 
message of admiration and compliment, " How well 
her fouta became her," negotiations for her purchase 
proceeded apace. The money he earned and his 
frequent tips enabled him to keep her in idleness with 
an old woman, Ai'cha, who was at once guardian and 
servant to the pretty young wife. 

The marriage had taken place late In September 
and all through the winter Amalou had proved him- 
self a most devoted lover and husband, who de- 
lighted in decking his bride with barbaric ornaments 
and gay silk foiitas to keep alight in himself the 
flame of desire, as every good Mussulman should. 

Throughout the cold months he was practically 
free to come and go as he pleased, for keen icy 
blasts swept down from the mountains and snow ten- 




w 



-.jm mMtmmammt 



fi 



ESSENCE OF ROSES 239 

derly covered the broken boughs, which the women 
had mutilated in summer to give food to their starv- 
ing beasts. A white pall lay thick on the roadway, 
the little hotel stood empty of guests and hardly a 
day passed but Amalou climbed the perpendicular 
cliff behind it and sped over the further side to visit 
his prisoner and wife. He took a short cut to the 
rear of the village, climbed the back wall of his little 
demesne and announced his presence as he sprang 
into the courtyard. 

Thus time had passed swiftly enough for Zoo- 
wahra and she scarcely missed the companions of her 
girlhood, whom, now, she never saw. Having mar- 
ried into another Sof, she was as far removed from 
her own kindred as if her parents had sent her to 
Taourit-Mimoum, to Kou-kou, to Tirouda, or any 
other village of Sahel, which she did not know even 
by name. The rare visitors of her own sex, who 
came to see her, she patronized, feeling herself im- 
mensely superior to these other women, who were 
hewers of wood and drawers of water, and she en- 
joyed the social prestige of being idle and hidden 
away. 

When Spring came, however, the long unwonted 
confinement began to tell upon her health. She 
grew thinner; her cheeks were pale under the saf- 
fron-tinted rouge and her koh'eul rimmed eyes 
seemed to fill two-thirds of the little white face be- 
daubed with colour. She longed, half uncon- 
sciously, for the soft caressing breeze which blew 
outside in the open bare spaces, and for the fulness 



240 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

of the sunshine, which never seemed wholly to il- 
lumine the closed-in court beyond her dark window- 
less cage. 

Spring too brought wealthy tourists, English and 
American, to the Hotel, who stayed awhile to gaze 
admiringly, from the shaded verandah straight 
across at the beautiful snowcapped Djurdjura moun- 
tains and at the pretty brown villages lying between, 
which rose afresh every day out of a cold grey sea of 
heavy morning mist. Private cars arrived at any 
and all times, so that Amalou was tied by his work 
and the hope of rewards for his quick and willing 
service : in consequence, his visits to his home grew 
more rare. 

From time to time his thoughts flew over the 
ground his feet could not traverse, but at last he 
grew too busy even to think. 

As the snow melted away from Leila Khadidja ^ 
and the sun tinted the towering peak with delicious 
warm tints of violet and rose, other visitors came 
by the big automobile which makes its winding spiral 
ascent daily from Tizi-Ouzow. That drive, in it- 
self, is a long dream of beauty, with the market town 
visible again and again, as each twisted stair of the 
mountains is rounded until the houses growing 
smaller and smaller, are at last quite lost to sight. 
The newcomers had been thankful to leave the cap- 
ital of Great Kabylie, set down at the bottom of a 
bowl and walled in by heated rocks; or they were es- 
caping, pale and exhausted, from the moist, ener- 

^ The highest peak of the Djurdjura mountains. 



ESSENCE OF ROSES 241 

vating air of Algiers, whilst others were fleeing from 
the sirocco which tried, and sometimes succeeded, in 
pursuing them all the long journey through from the 
South. Every room in the inn was occupied for 
days, weeks, even months together. Amalou 
worked from early dawn to midnight and in August, 
m.aking life still harder for a pious Mussulman, be- 
gan the Fast of Ramadhane. 

Extremes of any kind are usually bad, being un- 
balanced, and it is curious to notice how extremes 
of an opposite nature are apt to bring about an iden- 
tical' result. In this instance, the husband, who 
worked overmuch, and the wife, who was not per- 
mitted to work at all, both developed nerves and an 
irritability of temper which, when they did meet, 
provoked quarrels. Each had a grievance. Zoo- 
wahra felt herself neglected and became resent- 
ful of her prolonged seclusion. Ama,lou noticed 
that her beauty was waning and ignorant, or utterly 
careless, of the fact that he was himself to blame 
for this, he reproached her with it, infuriating her 
the more, even if she dared not show her anger in 
his presence. The husband was too worn out phys- 
ically and too Impatient to see the defiance which was 
stirring within her and which, no doubt, would have 
surprised him, for most wives only trembled and 
wept when they could no longer please the tyrant 
of the home. Now and again there are exceptions 
amongst these hill women for Kabylie, in the past, 
was a favourite refuge for rebellious spirits, who 
fled to the mountain fastnesses and, remaining there, 



242 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

transmitted their hot untamed blood to their de- 
scendants. 

Zoowahra may have had some such ancestor, for 
she cherished her anger and gave vent to it when 
she and ATcha found themselves once more alone. 

There was a vague sort of kinship between Ama- 
lou and the withered, wrinkled old crone he had 
placed In charge of his wife. Though perhaps 
hardly forty years had passed over Aicha's head, 
Kabylie life and Kabylie customs had aged her be- 
yond recognition; beyond trace of the good looks 
which had once notably been hers. 

Her scraggy, bare, yellow throat was tatooed 
with a blue black necklace, a band and pendant 
chains, to hide the goitre which had attacked her and 
which, in its first stages, the Irritant pricking of 
needle and powder have been known to effectually 
cure, or, at least, to partially conceal. 

In the scenes enacted before her blinking, but yet 
wide awake eyes, ATcha saw her own early married 
life reflected, as In a mirror, when she had lived In 
her husband's hut on the confines of the French vil- 
lage. Yet she had been freer than Zoowahra. 
How else could the Spahl have marked her for his 
own : the dashing Red Cavalier, who lounged out- 
side the Bureau, or rode down the street on his fine 
prancing charger? Her bent shoulders straight- 
ened and a new light flickered In the sunken tired 
eyes as she recalled the first day she had seen him 
and he had swung himself off his horse, not far from 



ESSENCE OF ROSES 243 

the stone fountain where she stood in her striped 
red and yellow petticoat, with a still empty jar poised 
on her head. Men are strictly forbidden to linger 
near rivers, or wherever pitchers are filled, but If a 
stone suddenly lodged In the hoof of his mount, how 
could he help It? 

She had resisted at first, for she liked her husband 
well enough, though he beat her often as a sign of 
his affection, but the Cavalier In the red burnous had 
a wheedling way with women and he found a ready 
go-between In ATcha's old aunt, who brought mes- 
sages and an amulet to guard her from harm. She 
cherished it still in Its beautifully embroidered 
leather case, hung by a faded yellow cord round her 
neck, with the writing inside, " the verses of 
protection," ^ which she had never seen, but which 
had successfully screened her and her lover. He 
had ridden away for good one day, the handsome 
Spahi, on his curvetting steed and Aicha had seen 
him no more, but she had never forgotten. After 
that episode life became very drear to her: the little 
son had died: the husband neglected her and took a 
younger wife into the home. Aicha had toil for 
her portion, little shelter, not much food. Then 
her husband died and Amalou offered to make her 
his wife's servant and jailor. The old woman ac- 
cepted thankfully and endured the girl's Ill-temper 
with the patience born of long hardship; but, at 
length, when Zoowahra grew more fretful and sul- 

2 From the Koran. 



244 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

len, she looked about for some means of contenting 
her charge. 



Before many days had passed " Fate, Luck, the 
Long Arm of Coincidence, or the Devil " came to 
Aicha's aid and sent Salt ben-Amoqran up the ascent 
to Alt Itichem. She knew him well, had watched 
him grow from boyhood into manhood, his father 
being akin to her husband ; but it was many months, 
perhaps a year or more since she had looked on his 
handsome face. Here was diversion for Zoo- 
wahra ! A pedlar, by reason of his trade, might 
approach where no other man dared be seen. With 
his sack as sufficient extenuation of his presence, 
he was at liberty to crouch down on the threshold 
of a hut and there display his wares to the chatter- 
ing, eager women standing just within the door. 

Sai't had come up to Michelet for the Tuesday 
market and had intended to pass by the poor little 
hamlet and take the high road, which lay beneath it, 
to the rich village of Taka, but his goal was still 
some miles off; it was later in the day than he had 
thought; sunset was approaching, when he might 
drink, and the sirocco had parched his throat till it 
felt all afire. He decided to try his luck at the ham- 
let and either exchange a few of his samples for cof- 
fee and food, or cajole some woman into giving him 
a meal for nothing. This happened more often 
than not in his wanderings and many a pretty Bedou- 
ine had fallen a victim to his persuasive tongue 



ESSENCE OF ROSES 245 

and fine bearing. He had Inherited his good looks 
from his mother, who belonged to the tribe of Ai't- 
Ouaguennoun, famed for its beautiful daughters. 
Their loveliness was due, said tradition, to the strain 
of foreign blood Introduced by the dare-devil Euro- 
pean pirates who had mated and left descendants 
along the shores of the purple sea. The roving 
spirit was reborn in Sai't and he had been well con- 
tent to follow his father's trade, for he loved adven- 
ture and travel. He had gone away south, then to 
Tunis and had followed the coast line back to Kaby- 
iie, buying up samples of medicines and cosmet- 
ics at the portSi Now he was well provided with 
everything a hill woman could possibly want, In his 
little phials and boxes. When foreheads were low 
he would offer yellow arsenic and green soap to 
make an ointment warranted to kill the roots of the 
hair and heighten the brow : when tresses, eyebrows 
and lashes were too fair he had oak apple and hadida 
to dye them. There was koh'eul, and to spare, for 
the little reed cases which hang, half concealed, in 
the folds of gay muslin draperies ; henneh for pretty 
palms and long supple fingers ; rouge, rolled In odor- 
ant powder and sweet scents from the City of Per- 
fumes. 

With his stock In trade over his shoulder Sai't 
climbed the hill track which led Into the village. 
There by the fountain he met old Ai'cha with a shin- 
ing petrol tin on her head, and Immediately knew 
his supper was assured. He followed her Into the 
little courtyard, seated himself on his heels by the 



246 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

doorstep of the hut patiently awaiting the descent 
of the sun, whilst Ai'cha busied herself with her 
cooking pots and Zoowahra delightedly turned over 
his wares. Meanwhile he watched the girl and the 
sight of her pleased him overmuch, for excitement 
had driven away her languor, lent briUiance to her 
eyes: a red flush stained her cheeks and she was 
good to look upon. 

At first, to do her justice, the young wife hardly 
thought of, or looked at the pedlar, so occupied was 
she with the finery and stray assortment of treas- 
ures he had spread out at her feet. As good for- 
tune would have it English tourists had lately come 
to visit the village and she had sold them some of her 
trinkets at a very high price. 

After much hesitation Zoowahra chose a mendil 
of a rich ruby red and some musk; then, with a lit- 
tle scream of delight, she discovered a phial of attar 
of rose. Sai't ben-Amoqran was on his feet In a 
moment and, looking up, she met his eyes and 
caught his low whisper. She put her hands quickly 
over her face, jerked her chin upwards and, backing 
into the hut, closed the door on him. 

The pedlar laughed softly and somewhat deri- 
sively, then busied himself putting his wares into his 
sack by the dim light of the fast dying day. When 
Ai'cha appeared with his coffee, he drank It thirstily, 
took a round cake of bread from her and giving her 
some ointment for rheumatic joints, shouldered his 
goods and was gone. The red mendil and the per- 
fume lay on the step and when Aicha's half blind old 



ESSENCE OF ROSES 247] 

eyes saw them, she chuckled. Sai't would come 
back. 

Next day found him at the hut again sure enough 
and the next. He lingered about the village deter- 
mined to hunt down his quarry. Zoowahra at first 
half hid herself from him, but he caught glimpses 
of downcast eyes, an aquiline nose, of a profile 
framed in ruby silk, whilst the odour of roses per- 
vaded the still hot air. He summoned Ai'cha to his 
aid and she, recalling memories of her own youth 
and with the love of intrigue strong within her, 
played upon the girl with sure fingers as on some 
rude instrument with but few strings and chords. 
She even went so far — Sai't having bent her tune- 
less self to his fancy — as to offer Zoowahra her 
wonderful amulet, with its verses of protection, to 
shield them both from the husband, who was cer- 
tainly neglecting her sadly. Husbands were all 
alike ! No doubt, he had seen some pretty face 
that had charmed him; was thinking perhaps of 
marrying another wife, one who would give him a 
son. 

As if to give the lie direct to her evil suggestions 
the unconscious Amalou paid them a most unex- 
pected visit, but unluckily It did not tend to improve 
matters. The man was very worn out with work 
and fasting: had reeled with faintness as he waited 
at table from the smell of the food he dared not 
touch. One of the visitors had taxed him with rude- 
ness, which if true had been unintentional, and when 
dinner was over and all traces of it had been re- 



.248 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

moved from off the wide terrace, the head waiter 
was so sick and tired that he practically demanded 
leave to go home. 

So long was it since his jump into the courtyard 
and his call had been heard, that Amalou's arrival 
came as a shock to the two women in the hut. A'lcha 
made a desperate clutch at the silk kerchief which 
adorned Zoowahra's pretty little head, but her quick 
thought was unavailing, for the girl, In her agita- 
tion, dropped the phial, with which she had toyed 
endlessly since the first day that Sait had changed 
the even current of her life. 

Bereft of her ruby mendil and watching the last 
drops of precious perfume as they oozed slowly over 
the stone dokana where she had been lying, all the 
joy that her treasures had kindled, died within her. 
When Amalou entered the hut his wife faced him 
with a look of evident surprise and fear. 

The last Friday of the weary month of abstinence 
found Sai't ben-Amoqran in the early dawn driving 
a patient bourriquot before him, Its back piled up 
with a little tent and his wares. He was on his way 
to the Souk^-el-Djemaa, the largest and most pic- 
turesque market of Great Kabylie, and all along the 
tracks of the surrounding hills were to be seen other 
irdthen ^ like himself with donkeys, mules, or cam- 
els, making their way slowly down the zigzag paths 
into the valley. Some had arrived overnight and 
had tethered their beasts close to the stream which 

2 Market. * Hawkers. 



ESSENCE OF ROSES 249 

formed a boundary line on one side of the long 
rectangular ground taken up by the market, with 
apple orchards beyond the rippling, refreshing 
water. When Sait had made the long descent and 
found himself amongst the first comers they were 
already erecting their low canvas shelters and put- 
ting out their goods : gay cotton cloths ; silk ker- 
chiefs; trinkets and beads; cheap French articles; 
brooches and clasps made In Switzerland, or Italy; 
soaps and scents. Cutting the rectangle in half was 
a great gateway, like an immense triumphal arch, 
which seemed to have stood there through the ages 
and to have served some other purpose than merely 
to divide the groups of vendors. Beyond It there 
were food stuffs; grain was being measured, and 
meat and skins lay about in great piles. Camels 
were tethered to the trunks of trees which had evi- 
dently made a long journey from the far South, 
from Biskra and Touggourt even, where saddlebags 
and nosebags are so richly worked In reds and 
greens that they would not, In the form of cushions, 
disgrace a lady's boudoir. 

The gathering on this occasion was unusually 
large : every available beast and vehicle had been 
requisitioned. At noon the M'rahet would preside 
at the Great Prayer of the last market of Ramad- 
hane. Sait Intended to be present and In company 
with hundreds of others to make his prostrations 
beneath the shade of the olive trees on a plateau 
above the river's bank. He had been very success- 
ful In his sales and It was time for him to be travel- 



250 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

ling southward, but his sudden passion for Zoo- 
wahra stayed his steps and kept him among the 
mountains. The girl had become reckless now and 
defiant of her husband since that last Interview 
which had been so stormy. Amalou's suspicions 
were at once aroused and his wrath had been terri- 
ble. He had beaten her; reproached her with be- 
ing childless and without hope of a child; had threat- 
ened to murder any man who came near her. Sa'it 
of the handsome face and silver tongue shone by 
contrast in every way beside her dark, ill-favoured 
spouse. Amalou's threats made her shudder and 
remembering ATcha's offer of the amulet she de- 
manded it of her. The old woman was loth to part 
with her treasure, but Sa'it was generous and kind; 
her charge was no longer badtempered and she 
would get it back again, no doubt, she reflected, 
when the pedlar had gone. She thought Zoowahra 
wanted it to shield herself from Amalou's anger 
and heavy hand, but the girl was more fearful of 
harm to her lover, and when she got the charm, 
threw the frail yellow cord over his head and im- 
plored him to wear it. Sait had heard the story of 
the broken phial, and now that his morning's work 
was over he determined to find another and with It 
break down Zoowahra's last feeble show of resist- 
ance. 

His search for the perfume must have taken 
longer than he thought and the bargaining with the 
hawker (who had brought wares from Tunis) was 
certainly a serious affair. When it was, at last, 



ESSENCE OF ROSES 251 

successfully over and he had secured the precious 
essence, he noticed that the market had emptied of 
men. Hurriedly climbing the ascent to the plateau 
he met them coming away in groups from the olive 
grove. He was too late! He had missed the 
Great Prayer! Superstitious Kabyle that he was 
he took it as a bad omen; then felt at his side for 
Zoowahra's amulet and, pressing it against him, was 
comforted : for a while only. In the late after- 
noon, as he wended his way slowly back to Michelet, 
a crow flew on to the branch of a tree, just above 
his head, and other birds circled about him till he 
again felt himself menaced by some unknown dan- 
ger. Was it to do with Zoowahra? He laughed 
as he thought of the number of times he had run 
the same risk and had always escaped misfortune, or 
hurt. There was the little M'Zabite, Faffa, whose 
husband was trading far away in Tell and who kept 
a shop herself for women only. There was Hadda 
of the soft wistful brown eyes and Khadldja and 
Zlla, who had paid with her life. . . . He frowned. 
That was an unpleasant memory and had meant a 
close shave for himself, but after all, one woman 
more or less in the world, what did it matter? He 
was going to see Zoowahra, who was the prettiest 
of them all and to-day was the last of the Great 
Fast, Praise be to God! 

It was late when he reached Michelet and the 
coffee shops were full of thirsty men. He stopped 
at the first, just beyond the fountain, stretched him- 
self luxuriously on a mat outside the door, and spent 



252 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

much time discussing prices and the luck of the day 
with his friends. Then he put up his beast at the 
fondouk ^ where he kept it and shouldering his sack 
prepared to move on to Ait Itichem. It must have 
been about an hour and a half after mogh'reh ^ that 
he started on his way unaccompanied, even by the 
blessings of his late companions, for the men loved 
not to see his handsome face in the neighbourhood 
of their womenfolk and were glad to get him gone. 
An ill reputation flies apace. 

Avoiding the main road which makes a long de- 
tour past the French cemetery and bends round the 
hills, Salt walked on towards the hotel and took the 
track up the cliff, which begins almost within its pre- 
cincts. There was no moon and the night was very 
dark. As he strode up the footpath his white gan- 
doura and bwnous were clearly visible amongst deep 
shadows. Sait was no coward and had travelled 
far by unfrequented routes, but now he had an un- 
easy feeling that he was being watched and the ill 
omens of the day clung persistently to his mind. 
The djinns, no doubt, were abroad and busy with 
some of their devilish work, so he hummed a song 
to keep them off him and stopped to readjust his 
sack over one shoulder, leaving his right arm free 
to wield his mefrek if the attack should prove hu- 
man. Then he walked on more quickly round a 
bend which led past a grove of thickly planted trees. 

He bethought him of the scent for Zoowahra and 

^ Stables for camels, mules, etc. 
« About 8 o'clock. 



ESSENCE OF ROSES 253 

still grasping his stick put his hand clumsily Into the 
pocket of his gandoura. The phial was safe but, 
all unknown to him, he strained and broke the 
frayed yellow cord, from which dangled his amulet, 
so that the leather case slipped down and fell softly 
on a little pile of leaves. A rustling noise in the 
thicket at hand startled him and he turned to face 
It, just as a jagged stone thrown by an unerring hand 
struck him full on the temple. He fell like a log 
across the path and the same hand dragged his body 
slowly and very quietly In amongst the trees. 

All that was left of Sait ben-Amoqran lay in the 
brushwood that night and even for some hours in 
the morning. Passerfe by seeing a figure wrapped 
closely in a humous thought him asleep. 

At last one from some impulse of curiosity, or 
perhaps of Intuition, crept down to the body and, 
noting its stillness, turned it gently and saw that he 
had gone to his long account. The stick had fallen 
from his hand, but tightly grasped in the palm was 
a phial of attar of rose. 



PART IV 
IN CONSTANTINE 



CHAPTER XXV 

IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF ROME 

" We stood on the place of their ruinsj where 
nothing remained but the foundations of their walls. 
I wept until blood fell from ?ny eyes; where so 
many men once dwelt, now you found but the end. 
My eyes since then are ruined, for the sight of 
such faded grandeur has made a waste of my heart." 

September^ 1913- 

IN Michelet the great heat of the day time was 
gradually dying off, and the nights, always 
chilly, grew really cold. Dinners were served 
within doors more often than on the terrace : people 
were returning to warmer climes and to their own 
homes. It was time for me to leave also and my 
best route lay via the beautiful Col de Tirouda to 
Maillot, which is built on a step of the highest peak 
of Djurdjura. Hundreds of Kabyles pass through 
the pretty French village in the summer, choosing 
seven Thursdays for their pilgrimage to the top of 
the mountain, where lies enshrined Leila Khadidja, 
from whom it takes its name. She was a prophetess 
and M'rabta, widow of the Grand Master of an 

Order founded by Kabylie's most famous saint, Sidi 

257 



258 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

Mohamed-ben-Abd-er-Rahman-Bou Kobrein/ and, 
when her husband died, she became the actual, If 
not the nominal, head of a celebrated Zaouia. 

European tourists also go to Maillot to climb the 
peak, that they may gaze over the whole of the 
mountainous region of Great Kabylie, the chief 
ranges of Little Kabylie, the valley and villages of 
Sahel; but the excursion takes only one day, or two 
at most, and there is nothing else to detain sight- 
seers, so they rush on by road, or take the train, 
westward to Algiers, or northeast to Bougie, or 
again, southeast to Setif. Maillot, consequently, 
has seen Its best days, before those of rapid transit: 
place, people and country are impoverished, lack- 
ing energy and heart. 

My next destination was the greatest possible con- 
trast ! Setif possesses no natural beauties to recom- 
mend it; but, on the other hand, it has, not only the 
necessaries, but also the luxuries of civilised life; 
electric light, sanitation, baths. Between it and Les 
Portes de Fer, the first station In Constantine, lies 
one of the granaries of Algeria and the inhabitants 
are said to be rolling in riches. 

There has grown up, therefore, on the site of the 
old Roman SItlfis, a great commercial centre, in- 
creasing, by leaps and bounds, In wealth. In size 
and in importance. Judging by Its buildings Setif 
might be a large prosperous provincial town of 

1 " The man with two tombs " whose body, duplicated after 
death, lies amongst his own tribe o£ Ait-Smail and was also buried 
In great pomp at the Hamma, Algiers. 



IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF ROME 259 

France, but it is redeemed in picturesqueness by its 
Arab population. The Constantinois have the 
reputation of being great dandies and though sub- 
sequently I did not find this to be the case in the 
capital of the Department, it is absolutely true at 
Setif. 

In the evenings after dinner, it was a delight to 
watch the shifting groups of men clad in the snowi- 
est of robes, parading up and down the wide chief 
streets in twos and threes and gathering round the 
fountain in the Place Nationale. Few gay colours 
here as at the Place of Happiness, but mysterious fig- 
ures clad entirely in white, their faces framed and 
hooded, passing into the light cast by the lamps of 
streets and shops, then vanishing into the shadows of 
high houses, round corners, or into some dark in- 
terior. They are carpet and mat manufacturers, 
grain merchants and horse dealers, who are revivify- 
ing a country that long lay dead over great cities 
buried in the earth and their grandeur gone for ever. 

Hitherto, in my wanderings, I had not come upon 
remains of ancient Roman days in Africa, but in the 
Jardin d'Orleans at Setif there are many altars, col- 
umns, and tombstones; on the Roman road to Bou- 
gie is a mausoleum, popularly known as the Tom- 
beau de Scipion and, within easy reach, are the ruins 
of Djemila. This was the place to see, not the 
poor little Berber village with its huts paved with 
mosaics, but the Roman Cuicul from whence the in- 
lay had been ruthlessly stolen, and which is now be- 
ing excavated twenty-five miles distant from Setif. 



26o A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

On a cloudy morning, with a cool breeze blowing, 
I started in the lightest motor car obtainable for 
a lofty plateau, 19 miles north of the French vil- 
lage of St. Arnaud. The drive was indescribably 
dreary, along a deserted winding road which had 
not yet been peppered with the danger signals of 
the Automobile Club of France (though there was 
need of them) and the last seven miles of which 
could hardly be called a road at all. The whole 
time I was journeying through a region, quite bar- 
ren to all appearance and uninhabited save for a 
few isolated farms. Here and there a solitary fig- 
ure was at work on land that was too hard and dry 
to reward his efforts : the autumn rains were late. 
The undulating country was a dull brown shade, al- 
most without relief, save for the stubble, which was 
still strewn over it, the last sign and remnants of a 
harvest all gathered in. But here was the keynote 
of the vision that I had, of green blades waving in 
the light spring breezes of April; of stems, a pale 
yellow in May; and the golden glory of full wheat 
ears bowed down by their own weight In the early 
tropical summer. Those are the months in which 
to visit Setif and to see the country at its best around 
Sillegue. The river, which for the most part runs 
underground in its fertilising course, has been 
rightly christened by the Arabs " River of Gold." 
It may be so called for the yellow gold of the wheat, 
or for the red gold, cast from the furnace, that 
North African corn fetches in the grain markets of 
Paris and France. 



IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF ROME 261 

In September, alas! the land had been shorn of 
its glory: the whole country side looked a dreary 
waste and outside the corn growing region lay a 
mountainous district, bleak, bare and desolate all the 
year round. 

This wind-swept, cheerless plateau was the scene 
of a tragedy, of lost endeavour; one of the supreme 
tragedies of the ages, for it had been amongst 
the fair, populous places of the civilised world. 
In the 1st or 2nd century, these mountains had 
looked down upon a Roman city, wherein 40,000 
men and women had lived out the span of their little 
lives and had raised fine buildings to defy Time 
and Nature, in so far as human beings can. A great 
gate, 40 ft. high, gave entrance on the west side : 
beyond was a Temple; a Christian church with a 
monastery attached; innumerable houses. Its citi- 
zens had gathered in a Forum to listen to their lead- 
ers and orators and to hear of great events in Italy 
and the affairs of this colony of Ancient Rome. 
They built themselves an immense theatre, large 
enough to seat the entire population, and crowded 
into it to witness feats of strength and daring. 

What happened? A devastating fire raged in 
their beautiful city; hordes of barbarians wrecked 
and despoiled it; finally. Nature piled up mounds of 
earth, as on a tomb, and hid it from the world for 
hundreds of years. 

There is left now — an outline; great columns; 
a few buildings, partially restored; wonderful pave- 
ments, pieced together and housed in a Museum; 



262 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

hooks that once hung in a butcher's shop; a measure 
for cloth and for grain ; some little household gods. 
Ruins as memorials: I " found but the end." 



CHAPTER XXVI 

THE ENCHANTED PALACE OF HADJ-AHMED 

" Figurez-vous une delicieuse decoration d' opera, 
tout de marbre blanc et de peintures aux couleurs 
les plus vives, d'un gout charmant, des eaux coulant 
de fontaines ornbragees d'orangers, de myrtes, enfin 
un reve des milles et une nuit." H. Vernet. 






^ARLY on the morning of the 24th of Sep- 
tember I found myself at the entrance of the 
•* station at Constantine, waiting for the hotel 
bus and quite content to gaze upwards for a while 
at the strange, beautiful oriental city above me, 
bathed in an eastern glow. Strange, because of its 
great elevation and apparently impregnable posi- 
tion on a long, narrow, cruelly jagged rock, which 
just escapes being an Island, with the " fantastic 
river Rhumel," washing that terrible ravine at a 
depth of nearly a thousand feet. Strange too, and 
most interesting on account of the diversity of its 
buildings. 

Far away on the right, the white civil hospital, 
with its two large domes, first catches the eye. A 
suspension bridge, that Is a triumph of engineering, 
spanning the gorge 600 ft. above Its base, connects 
it with the north end of the town where the Kasha, 
successively Phoenician, Roman, Byzantine, Ber- 

263 



264 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

ber, Arab, Turkish and French, naturally dominates 
everything else In Its vicinity. On a line, more or 
less, with Fort and barracks are houses, too obvi- 
ously European and modern to arouse any interest: 
only the new Medersa,'^ built In the Turkish-Moor- 
ish style, awakens curiosity as to Its purpose — if 
not admiration. It stands In the middle distance 
and commands the Arab Quarter where dwell 30,- 
000 Mussulman souls and where, for the traveller, 
lies the great charm of Constantlne. The houses, 
of course, are closely packed together, gleaming 
white in the sunshine, with here and there azure 
walls and courts that might have been coloured by 
a laundress's blue bag. It was a fascinating vision, 
suggestive of all sorts of possibilities In store, and 
soon I was rattling up stony, narrow, hilly streets at 
the back of the Arab town and was set down at an 
hotel In the rue Caraman. 

Apart from the few days I had spent at Setif, I 
had been quite away from the region of banks and 
all such accommodating luxuries of civilisation for 
many months, so It was no wonder that my supply 
of ready money was exhausted. My last franc had 
just been bestowed on the luggage porter and here I 
was, at a strange hotel In a foreign city, with only 
a few sous at the bottpm of my hand bag. Posi- 
tively my first visit, and at once, must be to the 
Credit Lyonnals. 

"Where was It?" 

" In the Place du Palais, quite close at hand." 

1 Mussulman College. 




a 



< 



u 



THE ENCHANTED PALACE 265 

Following further instructions I turned to my 
right and walked on until I saw the Cathedral, on 
the opposite side of the road, with its great entrance 
doors opening southwards into a small paved court 
and, abutting on the fagade, a long flight of stone 
steps. 

Mounting these brought me Into a very modern- 
looking square with three other narrow exits, one 
south and two westwards, and nearly in its centre, a 
big bandstand. This was the Place du Palais, 
where my business was quickly transacted. Feel- 
ing relieved to be provided with the needful, and 
able to meet any unforeseen emergency, I retraced 
my steps more slowly, looking about me like a coun- 
try cousin. 

The whole of the north side of the Square was 
shut In by a large irregular building with wide, shal- 
low, stone steps, In front of which a sentry paced 
slowly to and fro. I asked a gendarme at the cor- 
ner of the lane what It was, and his answer surprised 
me not a little. — " The Palace of Hadj-Ahmed." 

That ugly dull-looking barrack! Was that the 
residence of which the last Bey had been so Inordi- 
nately proud? He even went so far as to throw 
open Its doors for a great fete, once and once only, 
when it was finished, that all the little world of Con- 
stantine might come to gape and marvel at its won- 
ders. Perhaps he would hardly recognise It him- 
self now, with its hideous modern chimneys, rising 
above at least two-thirds of the rectangular block, 
which jutted out beyond the entrance at the side. 



266 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

This latter alone and the quaint balcony above it, 
wore an old-world look: their glory had departed: 
they lay in deep shadow. 

With a feeling of disappointment I turned my 
back on the Palace disdainfully; descended the steps 
again and wandered into Notre Dame des Sept Dou- 
leurs just below, which in the time of the Beys had 
been the Market Mosque, El-Djemma Souk er- 
Rezel. 

Here again, one civilisation succeeding another 
had altered all the face of things: the western intol- 
erance of over seventy years ago and western in- 
genuity had adapted the Temple of one form of be- 
lief to suit the uses of another creed. In the wom- 
en's galleries, along the south wall, was an organ : 
facing it a choir had been built and an altar raised to 
the God of the Victors. The mihrdb was filled with 
a lifesize figure of the Christ; the mimbar was now 
a pulpit; superimposed on the dainty Inlay of 
brightly coloured stucco, which covered some of the 
walls like mosaic, were pictures of the Stations of 
the Cross. The whole effect was crude and bizarre 
to a degree, recalling vividly portions of El-Hadj 
Ai'ssa's prophecy of the fate of Algiers, which seemed 
equally true of this Temple. 

'' Woe to thy masters: 
To-day thou art as if they had never possessed thee: 
Thou art become the abode of the Christians : 
They have driven out the Faith and its defenders. 

Such is the Will of God! Praise be unto Him!" 



THE ENCHANTED PALACE 267 

Suddenly concluding that I was too hungry and 
tired to enjoy sights, I walked straight through the 
Cathedral, out Into the street and back to the hotel. 
After breakfast I darkened my room and lay down 
for a siesta. 



Some hours must have passed while I slept for 
the afternoon seemed to be closing in when, feeling 
thoroughly refreshed and fit, I resolved to try my 
luck again. Where should I go? I thought of the 
Palace with some distaste, but as I certainly could 
not leave Constantine without " doing " it, I might 
just as well get my task over and leave the rest of 
my days for that fascinating blue and white city 
which covers the lower part of the rock, running 
right down one side of It nearly to the Rhumel. 

Besides, there must be something Interesting in- 
side that ugly barrack. Hadj-Ahmed had ransacked 
the houses of his subjects and commandeered their 
choicest treasures : he took from them marble col- 
umns, tiles, windows. Salah Bey's house was de- 
spoiled of its beautiful things: a wonderful carved 
door had been carried away bodily. The Jews of 
Tunis supplied glass and sent their best workmen 
to fit it. A workman, El-Hadj joussef, who had 
been employed In the restoration of the Roman 
bridge by Salah Bey, offered his services to paint 
the walls with pictures ^ of the towns he had visited 

2 The story told of the French slave has been specially invented 
for tourists. 



268 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

during a pilgrimage to Mecca. The forests of Ka- 
bylie and the Aures mountains furnished cedar wood. 
A Genoese was commanded to bring marbles from 
Italy. When they arrived at Bone, the whole popu- 
lation turned out to help the convoys, that the pre- 
cious burdens of the mules and camels might not be 
damaged, so great was their fear of the Bey's an- 
ger and his awful punishments. The terrible Turk 
built his Palace by the spell, the suasion of his cru- 
elty and power. It had arisen as if by magic and 
the people soon began to regard it with superstitious 
awe. It was guarded by celestial powers, they said. 
It was enchanted! Of course I must see it. 

The sun had set; there was a chilly wind so I 
wrapped myself in the long travelling cloak (which 
Lisette's models at The Place of Happiness had 
christened my "^ burnous ") and put on my toque with 
a motor veil. When passing the pier glass it oc- 
curred to me that I really looked very like the women 
of Constantine who wear long blue or black nunlike 
habits in the street and are always muffled up to their 
eyes. 

It is extraordinary in Algeria what a difference 
the sunlight makes in every place, but I was not pre- 
pared for quite such a change as I found outside: 
it was bewildering. As a result I walked on too far 
and, missing the steps, found myself at the further 
end of Notre Dame des Sept Douleurs. Even that 
looked altered. I had an idea that a cross had 
stood rather prominently above the gateway by 
which I left the church in the morning, but there 



THE ENCHANTED PALACE 269 

was none to be seen now and there were several 
Arabs hanging about, which was also odd. A road 
wound round, in the right direction at all events, 
so that, probably, I need not turn back, and I asked 
one of the loiterers in French if it led to the Palace. 
He looked at me in a queer sort of way, as if he did 
not understand and murmured something that 
sounded like Zekak-el-Blate,^ but when I pointed up 
the ascent saying in a questioning tone " Palais d'el 
Hadj-Ahmed?" he nodded and rephed, " Ja, Dar- 
el-Bey " (Yes, the house of the Bey), so I 
walked on. 

A little way up the road it was quite evident that 
I had only overshot my mark by a turning, or so, 
for I found myself at the back of the Palace, where 
there were two entrances : the first a large gate and, 
a few paces beyond it, a painted, highly ornamented 
door, at the top of a few steps, which probably 
opened into private apartments. After a moment's 
hesitation I decided to knock at the gate. 

It opened at once — rather suddenly In fact — 
and I was startled at being confronted by a huge 
man in a uniform, which seemed oddly familiar, 
though I certainly had not come across it before 
during my stay in Algeria. A very long coat reach- 
ing below the knees was worn over the full Turkish 
trousers,* embroidered vest and sash. His turban 
was immense, of an Eastern fashion, unlike an Ar- 
ab's, and he v/as armed with a scimitar. Judging 

^ This was the former name of the street where the rue Cara- 
man now is. 



270 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

by the man's manner he might have been expecting 
me, so quickly and without question had he let me in 
and closed the heavy door behind me. Not a mus- 
cle moved in his impassive countenance, though he 
might reasonably have been astonished at my ap- 
pearance, so late in the afternoon and at the back 
gate. 

My mind was quickly diverted from the Mame- 
louk, however, by my surroundings which were as 
surprising as they were beautiful. Facing me was 
a bath which must have been planned for syrens or 
nymphs. It was an immense square basin of white 
marble in which red fish were swimming slowly 
about, or darting to and fro. In the centre a foun- 
tain supported by dolphins sent up jets of water 
high into the air to fall again like cascades and be 
received in vast cups, of varying size, placed one 
above the other and adorned with leaves and foliage 
exquisitely carved. A light, moveable, wooden 
bridge, like a gigantic toy, connected the bath with 
galleries running all round it to form a square court. 
They were raised just a step above its level, paved 
with marble and the walls tiled half way up with 
quaint old-fashioned plaques. Above them was a 
ribbon decoration painted in relief on a warm red 
background and crude pictures of towns and ports, 
such as no man ever saw, save the artist in his own 
mind's eye. 

A flight of steps at hand led down to vapour 
baths, dressing and resting rooms and in one of these 
there was actually an aviary of canaries and nightin- 



THE ENCHANTED PALACE 271 

gales to sing to the bathers and wile away the Idle 
hours. 

Just as I reached the top of the stairs on my re- 
turn from this exploration, a voice called out sud- 
denly : 

"Oh I there you are! Sellman came to tell me 
you were here and we could not find you." Then, 
In louder, angrier, tones : " What do you mean by 
going downstairs alone? You should have waited 
till I came to fetch you. How dare you 1 How 
dare you I " 

Turning In the direction of the sound, I saw a 
most picturesque figure coming down a marble stair- 
case on the right of the entrance, whilst Sellman re- 
spectfully held open a carved and glass panelled 
door which had hidden It from view. 

" What do you mean by not waiting? " the 
speaker screamed at me, like a little fury, stamping 
her foot and working herself up Into a passion whilst 
I gazed at her in mute astonishment. She was quite 
a young girl, with brilliant dark eyes and scarlet lips 
which had rather a cruel look caused, perhaps, by 
her wrath. Accustomed though I had become to 
see women in strange and showy raiment, this girl's 
dress seemed especially fantastic and costly. It was 
glittering with sequins and jewels and the little 
Turkish cap, set so coquettlshly on her head, was 
richly wrought with gold and gems. Who could 
she be and who In the world did she Imagine I was ? 

Then in quieter tones, but pouting and half cry- 
ing, like a spoiled baby, she continued: 



272 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

" You might have waited: I did so want to show 
you everything myself." 

Then she and the big guard, she called Sellman, 
were expecting a guest! Still, if she proposed to 
show me over the Palace, I was not going to make It 
my business to point out that they had made a mis- 
take in admitting me. The chance was too good a 
one to lose, so I said humbly: 

" I am so very sorry, but I was left all alone 
without any instructions and did not know where to 
go, or what to do, and everything was so lovely and 
so unusual all round me." 

" Well ! Well ! " she said, mollified evidently by 
my contrition and my warm praise, " Never mind! " 
Then, very graciously, " I'll forgive you this time 
and show you much more beautiful places than this. 
Perhaps we had better not go to my father's apart- 
ments, until he is at Dar Oum-en-Noun. He has 
supper there at five o'clock every evening as " . . . 
she hesitated; a shade passed over her face. . . . 
" It is safer If he only eats what Is given to him by 
my grandmother, or her eunuch Merzoug. Be- 
sides his wives live there as well as El-Hadja Rekia, 
his mother: it Is the old Palace In which my father 
was born and this part we are in is all new, built by 
him quite lately." 

As she was speaking a light broke In upon me. 
This must be Fathma, the daughter of the Great 
Bey: his very spoiled and petted little girl, whose 
word (after his own) was law throughout the Pal- 
ace. I should have to mind my P's and Q's and I 



THE ENCHANTED PALACE 273 

began to wonder what would happen if she discov- 
ered me to be a fraud and not the visitor she was 
expecting. 

" Of course," she went on volubly, " a lot of 
houses belonging to other people had to be pulled 
down and some of them made oh ! such a fuss ! In- 
stead of giving them up at once to my father ! " (this 
with great indignation). 

" There was one old woman, who would not go 
out of her room at all. So, what do you think hap- 
pened? My father was too clever for her. He 
said: ' Let her stay! ' and he had her locked in and 
each day there was a little less light and a little less 
air and a little less food. So at last she screamed 
and begged to be let out and they took her away to 
Kabyhe and she's dead. Ha ! ha ! ha ! " She 
laughed heartily, evidently thinking it a huge joke. 

" Come upstairs now and see my room and all 
the beautiful things my father commanded Seliman 
to bring me from Europe. You never can have 
seen anything like them and there are heaps and 
heaps." 

She ran up ahead and I followed, with some mis- 
givings which, however, were outweighed by my 
curiosity, though I had hardly time to see the first 
apartments through which my hostess led me at top 
speed. In one of them two little boys were playing 
together. 

" That is Mahomed Cherif and that is Mahmoud," 
said Fathma, pointing to each child in turn. " They 
are my father's sons and live in these rooms with 



274 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

their mother, Fathma bent bou Harara. No ! no 1 
don't stop ! " as I arrested my steps for a second, 
" We haven't too much time if you want to see the 
palace. Here's my room!" and she pushed open 
a door painted in the most vivid hues and panelled 
with glass, pulled me inside and shut it. 

It was charming. A spacious apartment the ceil- 
ing of which was supported by three slender marble 
pillars, between which hung candelabras of gilt and 
crystal. The floor, and the walls for a few feet, 
were tiled and above the plaques was a plaster dec- 
oration in the brightest possible colours. There 
was the usual alcove and very little furnishing, as 
in most Eastern rooms, except some painted coffers, 
out of which Fathma began to pull musical boxes, 
toys of all sort and description and mirrors of every 
shape, size and kind. She obviously expected me to 
be very much impressed and I acted immense aston- 
ishment to the best of my ability, but I was really 
much more interested in an enormous bronze egg cup 
in which was an ostrich egg. It was suspended and 
had three branches for candles. 

" Do tell me about that ornament," I pleaded, " I 
am sure it is for something special," 

Fathma looked up with a frown. "Oh, that! " 
she said impatiently. " It's filled with candles and 
lighted for Mouloud,* the birthday of the Prophet. 
You might have known that yourself." 

Then she bundled her treasures back again and 
said crossly, " I don't believe you like my things, 

*A great festival. 



THE ENCHANTED PALACE 275 

although you pretend to. I won't show you any 
more. You shan't see my little carriage either, 
drawn by two great big bulldogs that Seliman 
brought me." This was meant as a punishment for 
my inattention, but all of a sudden another Idea took 
hold of her childish irresponsible mind and she 
went off into a fit of laughter. 

" If you could only see old Ben-Aissa ^ In It," she 
said, " or the Khalifa Hamelaoul, you'd never for- 
get it! When my father Is dull and wants some 
fun, he sends for my carriage and he makes one 
or other of them get In and drive about. They do 
hate It so, especially the Khalifa. He Is very old 
and dignified and he looks so miserable when my 
father very politely asks him If he will take a little 
drive. He tries to refuse, of course. It Is kill- 
ingly funny. In he has to get and he holds on 
with both hands and my father has the dogs whipped 
till they rush over everything and the carriage rocks 
to and fro and Is in danger of being upset. My fa- 
ther laughs and laughs till he nearly rolls off his 
seat. ... I believe that's the lanterns! " as shafts 
of light flashed suddenly Into the room, reflected 
by the glass lined cedar wood shutters. " If they're 
lighting up the Palace, It must be getting very late. 
Go out on the balcony and look." 

I obeyed hastily and passed through the window 
on to a small belvedere, which overhung a beautiful 
garden filled with plants growing In rich tropical 
profusion. It was surrounded by covered galleries 

^ The Bey's prime minister. 



276 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

where figures were moving about with lights. A 
man, with a face as black as my boots, was busily 
engaged in hanging lanterns from every arch between 
the marble pillars, taking them from a little troop of 
negresses, whose business it was, no doubt, to clean 
and fill them. It was such a fantastic, weird scene 
that I became absorbed in watching it and quite for- 
got my hostess, until she gave me a tug, which nearly 
landed me on my back. " Come along," she said, 
" the other garden is much the prettiest and it is 
always lit up first to be quite ready for my fa- 
ther." 

She thereupon hurried me through some more 
apartments and down another flight of stairs into a 
veritable fairyland. 

Here again were cloistered galleries and arcades, 
simple and most wonderfully elegant and light, sur- 
rounding a garden filled with orange and myrtle, 
citron and fig trees. Trailing vines grew about 
them : their tendrils reaching out caught at the arches 
and twined themselves closely round the slender 
marble pillars. The ceilings coloured green, red 
and yellow, lit up by innumerable lamps reflected 
their vivid tints upon the pure whiteness of the mar- 
ble floor. There were several doors, like and yet 
unlike that by which we had just entered. One was 
of cedar wood panels, relieved by arabesques : an- 
other was of oak, ornamented with raised squares 
and lozenges, set within circles and brightly col- 
oured. In this enchanted Palace no two things of 
any kind were exactly similar. The beautiful mar- 



THE ENCHANTED PALACE 277 

ble pillars were of the greatest possible diversity 
representing every known style; Ionic, Tuscan, 
Greco-Byzantine, Composite: yet, strange to say, 
they were so well disposed that, as regards 
the general effect, all was in harmony. I faced 
three ranks of columns, supporting an equal number 
of arcades and thus forming three naves, which 
stretched out before the heart and centre of this 
curious Arab building, the Pavihon of the Great 
Bey. 

Fathma, for a wonder, was silent and let me gaze 
my fill without interruption. She seemed to be lis- 
tening intently and presently opened a door, the 
entrance to another staircase and waited Inside It for 
a time. 

" That leads to Dar Oum-en-Noun," she said, 
closing It very gently, " where my father is just now. 
Come quickly I Follow me 1 " 

In another moment we had sped down the gallery 
and stood within two massive, high green doors in 
an immense, oblong apartment with marble columns 
disposed at Intervals throughout Its length, for the 
support of five arcades. The walls were almost en- 
tirely covered with pictures: any blank spaces be- 
tween them were filled up with squares of porcelain. 
There was very little furniture: some rich Eastern 
rugs on the floor; a few boxes, ornamented with nail 
heads, to hold papers or books ; a couple of round ta- 
bles where food might be served and some weapons, 
richly inlaid; but there was a large alcove with tiny 
windows and colonnettes where the Bey sat, a la 



278 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

Turque, in the day time, so Fathma informed me. 
Now two or three negresses were arranging mat- 
tresses, pillows, and coverlets in it for the night and 
busying themselves about the apartment. 

The Pavilion had twelve windows! This struck 
me as most curious, until I realised that the Bey's 
kiosk was also his watch tower. It was In a central 
position: it was also isolated from the rest of the 
buildings and standing between the two beautiful 
gardens, so that its owner could look into every 
court and see at a glance what was taking place in 
each. I mentioned this discovery to Fathma and 
she laughed again : her little cruel laugh, which I was 
learning to dread. 

" He saw a woman plucking an orange one day, 
so he had her hand nailed to the tree," she said. 
" On another occasion some of the women were play- 
ing a game at imitating my father and one pretended 
to be the Bey. He watched them all the time, with- 
out their knowing it." 

"What happened?" I asked. "What did he 
do?" 

" He had the tongue cut out of the one who spoke 
and the eyes put out of those who looked on. Since 
then each woman lives in her own apartment and has 
no communication with the others unless my father 
is present," said Fathma, slowly, with her brilliant 
eyes fixed on my face, to watch the effect of her 
words. 

"Ohl" I ejaculated feebly. 

My hostess drew herself up to her full height. 



THE ENCHANTED PALACE 279 

" No one," she said, clenching her slender hands: 
" No one dare insult my father, or me. . . . 

" Do you know what has just happened? " she 
v/ent on hurriedly. Then, without waiting for an 
answer. " My father had arranged for my mar- 
riage with a man he had befriended and had chosen 
to be my husband, El-Hadj Hussein Turki. What 
do I care? I had never seen him, but he was a fool 
and worse than a fool for he had let a young widow 
Zohra bewitch him and my father found It out. It 
was an Insult to me : to my father's daughter. He 
has had to pay for being a fool: perchance there is 
more to come. Already Zohra Is dead." 

Fathma laughed showing her sharp white teeth 
and so like a little tigress did she look and as if she 
herself would have liked to spring upon and kill her 
unfortunate rival that, involuntarily, I recoiled from 
her In horror. Luckily she was too absorbed In her 
own story to notice this and demanded abruptly: 

*' Have you seen the Kaf Chekora? " 

I shook my head, wondering what horrible thing 
It might be. 

" Neither had I till yesterday," said she, " but 
then I had myself carried there. From the Palace 
we went towards the north, to the further end of the 
Kasbah, where there Is an abyss and one can look 
deep, deep down, ever so far to the river. At the 
very edge there are three great stones, placed end to 
end like a bench about two yards long. It was there 
they took Zohra a few hours before. I had asked 
for the executioners to be with me, but they could 



28o A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

not come: my father had further need of them. 
They sent a man who had seen it all and who had 
accompanied them the previous night to the house of 
Zohra. Hussein Turki was with her, but they tore 
her away and put her into a sack which one of the 
men carried over his shoulder. He said she strug- 
gled at first and then was very still. 

" Perhaps she was dead already from the shock," 
I ventured to suggest. 

Fathma turned on me a look of fury. " Dead! 
How dare you say so, or think so ; she was meant to 
die a much worse death than that. Of course she 
did, too," she added as if reassuring herself. 
"Where was I? Don't interrupt! I know . . . 
she was in the sack and the other man was carrying 
a box made of three planks and open at both ends. 
When they arrived at the stones the man with the 
box put it down on the end of the middle one and 
the other man laid the sack on top. Then Zohra 
began to struggle and struggle again to get free and 
the sack began to slide slowly, slowly along till it 
reached the very end and fell plump into the abyss. 
I nearly tumbled over myself trying to see it." 

I shuddered and could not forbear thinking that 
it would have been a good riddance if she had, when 
the big negro passed by the window, peering in and 
carrying a brass tray with coffee in his hands. 

" My father has returned from Dar Oum-en- 
Noun," cried Fathma, with a new note In her voice. 
" He may perhaps come here and he would be furi- 
ous if he saw you." 



THE ENCHANTED PALACE 281 

Seizing my hand she almost pulled me out of the 
room though I went most willingly, and pushed me 
into an obscure angle at the bottom of the gallery 
on the right hand, whilst she reconnoitred. The 
eunuch had left the door of his little cooking room 
open and I crouched behind it, with a beating heart, 
lest the awful Bey should come along and, finding 
me there, either torture me horribly or send me off 
in a sack after the unhappy Zohra. 

The Palace had been very quiet hitherto, but 
now there seemed a good deal of stir and noise. 
However it was confined to the distance and no- 
where in my immediate vicinity so I took courage to 
examine the beautiful door behind which I had taken 
shelter. Above its carved panels was an inscrip- 
tion which ran as follows : — 

" In the Na?ne of God, merciful and forgiving! Peace 
and happiness unto the master of this Palace; a life as 
prolonged as the tender cooing note of the dove; glory free 
from stain and joys unending till the day of resurrection." 

A little oval ornament above had borne a date, 
which had been so clumsily effaced that the door told 
me its own story. This inscription was not written 
for El-Hadj-Ahmed but for Salah Bey, a m'rahet, 
whose home and descendants had been so cruelly 
robbed by his successor. 

I was still staring at it and drawing my own con- 
clusions when Fathma returned from spying out 
the land, but she waved me back imperiously into 
my corner, so that again I sank down into shadow. 



282 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

As I did so the doors of a large square apartment 
Immediately facing me were thrown open by an un- 
seen hand and there issued from it a young negress 
gorgeously attired in scarlet, green and gold and 
more bejewelled than even my hostess herself. She 
shrank back at first on seeing Fathma, who com- 
pletely ignored her and who, when the coloured girl 
had gone, turned to me with an expression on her 
face that made me feel questions would be a mis- 
take. 

" Fetouma, the slave ! " she vouchsafed of her 
own accord, with the air and accents of a showman 
naming some loathsome creature despised by all 
the world. 

She waited for a few moments, then laying her 
finger on her lips to enjoin silence, took me by the 
hand and led me through the long gallery again and 
upstairs to the further side of the beautiful garden, 
where we could look right into it and be unseen our- 
selves. 

In its centre was a charming summerhouse built of 
cedar wood, half covered with green foliage where 
climbing roses grew and jasmine. The negro 
eunuch stood on guard beside the entrance, and on 
the other side the Caid-en-Nsa.® 

Reclining on a pile of cushions at the threshold, 
her draperies making a patch of gorgeous colour, 
lay Fetouma, the slave. The Bey sat within smok- 
ing and drinking coffee, but do what I would, I could 
not see his face. 

* The Caid in charge of the women. 



THE ENCHANTED PALACE 283 

He clapped his hands and from a balcony near by 
came the sound of reed flutes and tomtoms, played 
by musicians whom Hadj-Ahmed had blinded, so 
that they should not look upon the beauties of the 
harem. To the latter the music was evidently a 
signal, for the marble paved and pillared court 
round which ran the apartments of the women, be- 
came suddenly alive with forms, dream figures clad 
In every colour of the rainbow. Doors opened and 
there streamed Into the garden girls of almost every 
age and every shade of skin from white to black: 
Circassians, Georgians, Arabs, Negresses, aye, even 
Europeans. Gold and jewels gleamed and glittered 
in the light of a thousand lamps. With the scent 
of flowers, and of Incense burning in innumerable 
braziers throughout the Palace, was mingled the 
heavier odours of musk and of attar of rose. To 
the strains of the music was added the rustle of silks 
and the chink, chink of bracelets and anklets. 

Amongst them there was one, who seemed to be 
their head, or leader, and whom they all obeyed: 
young though she was and looking only about 
twenty, the others treated her as if she were a queen. 
She was exceedingly, unusually beautiful, but never 
was tragic grief more strongly depicted on any 
woman's face. 

" Who Is that lovely girl with exquisite classic 
features and brown eyes? She looks so terribly 
sad," I whispered to my companion. 

" That's ATcha," said Fathma softly. " She and 
her brother were carried away from their home in 



284 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

Italy when little children and sold as slaves in the 
market place at Alexandria. When her brother 
found out that she was here in my father's harem, 
he came and demanded to see her and my father 
was very angry and refused, of course. How could 
a strange man come here? Anselmo he was called 
and, like so many men, he would not take ' no ' for 
an answer and he worried and worried, so that at 
last my father could not be troubled with him any 
more and he had his head cut off. It is since that, 
Ai'cha has looked so very sad and she is very proud 
and haughty too. My father thinks a great deal 
of her and has given her charge of the seraglio and 
made her head over all the women, but I am sure 
she hates him." 

Poor ATcha ! No wonder she looked grief- 
stricken as she marshalled her magnificently attired 
flock. 

" What is she doing? " I asked. 

" Two or three times a month my father has all 
the women brought before him. Either they pass 
by him as he sits in the Pavilion, or else they line up 
in two rows and he walks down between, asking 
questions about their health and if they want any- 
thing. Afterwards the Caid-en-Nsa has to supply 
them with clothes, medicine, cosmetics, jewels, and 
anything else my father may wish them to have." 

How I hoped he would come out of his den that 
I might see this dreadful monster, who seemed so 
callous to all human suffering; but he did not and 
the march past began. 



THE ENCHANTED PALACE 285 

What a curious sight it was ! One woman after 
another, all with their arms crossed upon their 
breasts, with bent heads and lowered eyehds walked 
slowly by before the Bey. As far as I could tell 
very few dared to ask for anything. He had evi- 
dently risen, but still I could not catch a glimpse of 
him, for he stood within the shadow of the little 
house and its luxuriant creepers. With some he 
seemed to bandy words and jests — grim jests no 
doubt : others went by almost unheeded : one woman 
he struck full upon the mouth when she turned to an- 
swer him, an awful blow which made her reel. 
Now and again he detained one with a sign and 
such a one fell out of the ranks and stayed within 
call. When this happened Fetouma moved rest- 
lessly upon her pillows and seemed to try and catch 
the Bey's attention. She did this once too often 
and he kicked her brutally as he would a dog, but 
nothing worse occurred though I often felt sick with 
apprehension. On they came, more and still more 1 
I had expected to see about fifty women at the most: 
there were nearly four hundred. 

Then those few who had been commanded to 
wait, moved towards the Pavilion and there was a 
long pause. One, a pretty young girl all in white 
silk with a spangled veil draped over her head, 
seemed to hang back. To her the Bey handed his 
pipe. The negress raised herself once more, pain- 
fully, upon her cushion and shot at her rival a glance 
of jealousy and rage. 

" Quick! Quick ! " said Fathma, " that is the end. 



286 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

You must go out at once or you will be locked In. 
The women are being shut up again in their rooms. 
Listen! . . .The locks are specially made to clang, 
so that if anyone tried to open a door in the night, 
the whole Palace would be aroused by the noise. 
Here's Seliman come to fetch you and the guard at 
the gate have orders to let you out Go ! Go ! " 

I felt myself being half pushed, half carried 
through a maze of rooms, then downstairs and along 
galleries, till we reached — how, I know not — a 
passage with three doors. Here my guide dropped 
me and I blindly made a dash for the door on the 
left hand, whereupon he ran back and saying that 
was the Bey's private way into the Mosque, opened 
another straight ahead and pushed me out. I sim- 
ply flew down the narrow path that zigzagged and 
was shut in at the further end by a huge gate, steel- 
plated and guarded by Mamelouks. 

Almost unnerved and overcome by a sudden feel- 
ing of relief at my own safety, I passed out and 
heard it crash behind me with the clanging noise of 
a gong. 

The city was all dark. . . . 

" Woe to the Turks! Their glory hath departed! 

Their riches are scattered. 

The Turks are bereft of their power. 

Such is the Will of Allah! Praise be unto Him!"'' 
"^ Prophecy of El-Hadj Aissa. 



CHAPTER XXVII 

MEMORIES OF SALAH BEY 

" The tongue is often the enemy of the neck." 

Arab Saying. 

"Every discourse hath its time and every deed 
its hour" Turkish Saying. 

September, 19 13. 

N^^EARLY every capital, unless it be as mod- 
ern, overgrown and cosmopolitan as our 
own, bears upon it the impress of some 
one of its rulers. This may be especially true of or- 
iental cities under a despotic, and too frequently, 
unenlightened sway: it is certainly the case in Ma- 
homedan Constantine, once the capital of the East 
Algerian Beylic. After a tour of the Mussulman 
quarter one exclaims : " Here lived and ruled Salah 
Bey! " to the exclusion of all the Turkish governors 
who preceded and the many who followed him. As 
they were entirely subject to the Deys of Algiers, 
it is easily understood that their tenure of authority 
was sufficiently insecure to be short lived and often 
end tragically. Salah's reign of twenty years was 
of unusual length: moreover he had a genius for ad- 
ministration and not only Constantine but the towns 
of the Sahara benefited by his wise, beneficent rule. 

aS7 



288 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

He was well acquainted with the needs of the prov- 
ince, having conducted several successful expeditions 
in the south when he was but a soldier of fortune, 
serving in the little army of the Beys. 

On being raised to the position of Governor he 
enforced the payment of customs dues on all imports 
and exports at Colla, Stora, Bona and La Calle, 
and with the revenue thus obtained, built schools 
and mosques and carried out other public works. 
In the quarter once known by his name, and now as 
the Place Negrier, is a beautiful memorial, more 
often called the Mosque of Salah Bey, than by its 
proper title of Djemma Sidi el-Kettani. 

Beyond the great ironbound door a wide passage 
leads to a flight of steps and a court above them, 
marble paved and tiled with porcelain, round which 
runs a circular gallery. The interior is a rectangle 
with five naves, divided by beautiful pillars of Ital- 
ian workmanship and two cupolas surmount the 
whole. So cool and quiet is this house of prayer, 
that it is only by ascending the minaret and looking 
down on the city spread out immediately beneath, 
that one realises how crowded up against it are the 
shops and houses where dwell defenders of the Faith, 
as fanatical and as tenacious of their creed as were 
they in the time of Salah Bey. The ancient Me- 
dersa of that period, also built by him, adjoins the 
Mosque on the right hand but alas ! it has been let 
as private dwellings and the body of the founder 
removed to a little hamlet, five miles away from Con- 
stantine, where he had built himself a country house. 



MEMORIES OF SALAH BEY 289 

Even in Roman days this oasis had been a favour- 
ite summer resort for the inhabitants of Cirta, as 
the capital was then called, and I found the drive 
there most enjoyable in the freshness of a sunshiny 
morning. It is not surprising that the siclc who 
make a pilgrimage to the kouha of Sidi Mohammed- 
el-R'Orab/ on the opposite side of the fertile valley 
of the Rhumel, derive immense benefit from the har- 
aka 2 of that noted saint, so delicious and invigorat- 
ing is the air in the oasis of Salah Bey. His de- 
scendants supply the needs of the pilgrims and a 
building has been erected which is a sort of rude 
hospital, with mattresses and pillows on the ground 
and curtained off from one another. In a shed 
alongside, women were busy cooking soup and cous- 
cous for the invalids. Voices too hailed me from 
under a large cistern (repaired by the Bey when he 
built his palace) and I found there were bathers in 
the hot springs beneath the tank. 

In the kouba itself were a few pale women, sit- 
ting close up against the high tomb and reverently 
handling its faded green and red draperies em- 
broidered in silver and gold. Quite low on the 
ground beside it was a humble grave, partially cov- 
ered by a long black plank, where lay the remains of 
the greatest of the Beys. He it was who had slain 
Sidi Mohammed and, as an act of atonement, when 
the m'rabet (like the Jackdaw of Rheims) "was 
canonised by the name of Jim Crow," Salah had 
raised this mausoleum in his honour. Then, after 

^ The crow. 2 Xhe sacred force. 



290 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

his own many vicissitudes, both in life and death the 
Bey had found a last resting place himself at the 
feet of his inveterate foe. The story, truly oriental 
in character, is a strange one and in effect as follows : 

Despite the fact that Salah Bey endowed hotels 
for poor pilgrims at Mecca and Medina and built 
many mosques, as well as a Medersa and schools, 
with the money derived from imports levied at the 
Ports, the religious party in the capital took alarm 
at his endeavours to spread a knowledge of the sci- 
ences and to combat some of the prejudices and su- 
perstitions in that hotbed of fanaticism. Sooner or 
later then, it was inevitable that friction should arise 
between a Governor, who had embarked on such a 
bold venture, and the m'rabets, whose business it 
was to keep the light of learning burning low that 
the laity should continue to see. only by the flame of 
Faith. 

Of the Bey's many opponents the most violent and 
convinced was a certain Sidi Mohammed who was 
greatly revered on account of his saintly life. This 
m'rabet had also won renown as an orator and he 
waxed doubly eloquent on the subject of Salah's 
devilish works and wickedness, so that he soon had a 
large following of devoted adherents and became 
very influential. Encouraged by his success, Sidi 
Mohammed began to preach open resistance and the 
Bey felt he must take drastic measures to check, In 
its early stage, what promised to be shortly a very 
formidable rising against him. He was a strong 
man. He had the ringleader arrested and con- 



MEMORIES OF SALAH BEY 291 

demned him to death. In consideration of the 
m'rabet's popularity, it was a hazardous decision 
and needed an armed force to carry the matter 
through in the presence of a menacing, fanatical 
crowd, who would gladly have saved their saint 
from martyrdom. This was an Impossibility owing 
to the Bey's precautions, but instead a very strange 
thing happened. 

As the fatal stroke fell, which severed Sidi Mo- 
hammed's head from the body it became trans- 
formed into a great crow, to the amazement of the 
assembled populace. Croaking out a malediction 
the bird flew directly to Salah Bey's new pleasure 
house (only a mile and a half away as the crow flies) 
where It halted long enough to repeat its awful curse 
and then disappeared for ever. 

No doubt the saint's disciples expected that some 
terrible punishment would at once overtake the Gov- 
ernor for his temerity. He may have thought so 
himself, or, perhaps was stricken by remorse, for he 
immediately set about building the little chapel In ex- 
piation of his deed and dedicated it to 'the martyr. 
Being rid, all the same, of a troublesome enemy, 
Salah Bey was again able to turn his attention to the 
welfare of the capital and province and, all unwit- 
tingly, knocked more nails into his own coffin. This 
time he fell foul of the authorities at Algiers. 

The times and country were far from being altru- 
istic: it is doubtful if such an Idea even found ex- 
pression in the Turkish or Arabic dialects. " Each 
man for himself and de'Il tak' the hindmost " was 



292 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

better understood and when the Pacha heard of the 
rebuilding of the Roman bridge (El-Kantara) at 
Constantine, he and his advisers at once concluded 
that more lay behind that ambitious undertaking of 
the Bey than appeared on the surface. The work 
was really one of great practical value and for the 
pubhc good. Not only did it provide another exit 
from the isolated capital, but it brought the aque- 
duct into the city: water for the multitude crowded 
together on that high narrow rock. 

Perhaps it was the religious party who carried 
the news to headquarters and hinted that Salah was 
only working for his own ends and paving the way 
to independence. They had been unappeased by 
the building of the kouha to St. Crow and, in addi- 
tion, the rash and heedless Bey had the misfortune 
to offend a Tunisian saint, Sidi Obeid, who, although 
dead, still performed miracles for his tribe when 
they invoked his valuable aid. 

For some time past the Nememcha, who inhab- 
ited the borders of Constantine and Tunisia, had 
been exceedingly troublesome : they were for ever 
engaged in guerilla warfare and in pillaging the 
surrounding country. Matters came to such a pass 
that the Bey headed a punitive expedition against 
them, but unluckily he could not come up with his 
cunning enemies. Still more unfortunately he fell 
in with a caravan party of the Ouled Sidi Obeid, who 
were returning from Tell with supplies of grain. 
As this tribe shared the territory of the Nememcha, 
the Bey believed that he might strike a blow indi- 



MEMORIES OF SALAH BEY 293 

rectly at the enemy through their friends and neigh- 
bours. He therefore commandeered their camels 
and, heedless of the protests of the leader, who was 
also a m'rabet, he ordered that the creatures should 
be branded with the mark of the Beylic. 

Finding his expostulations of no avail, the chief 
of the Ouled Sidi Obei'd addressed himself to Allah 
and called upon the dead saint of his tribe to bear 
witness to the injury they had suffered. He prayed 
that the oppressor might be shortly removed from 
this world ; that Sidi Obei'd would charge his cannon 
with powder and a bomb and turn the weapon against 
the Bey; that in the following month of Achourd 
Salah and his two Cai'ds should be done to death by 
an unseen hand. Sent for by the Governor the 
m'rabet simply repeated his words and refused all 
offers of restitution made to him too late. 

"What I have said, I have said!" he cried. 
" Not from you, nor from your successor will I ac- 
cept what is not yours to give; but from him who 
will replace you both," so the Bey was not permitted 
to atone. 

After this troubles came thick and fast. He was 
deposed by the Pacha of Algiers, who sent Ibrahim 
Bey in his stead and though he was able temporarily 
to regain his power by effecting the assassination of 
the new man, he could not overcome his destiny. A 
new Bey, Husse'in-ben-Bou-Hanek, arrived post 
haste from Algiers, who besieged Salah in his own 
palace, which he had built near the Mosque Sidi el- 
Kettani. 



294 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

Finding resistance useless the deposed Governor 
offered to give himself up, provided he might go out 
under the protection of the Sheikh el-Islam, Sidi Abd- 
er-Rahman-ben-El-Fekoun. He must Indeed have 
found himself in desperate straits for friends, to rely- 
only for help on the head of the religious party. In 
the stress of the storm that had suddenly broken 
over him, had he forgotten the offences of past 
years; the living saint he had martyred; the dead 
saint whose tribesmen he had Injured? If so. 
Sheikh el-Islam remembered! Once outside the 
palace he wrenched away his burnous from the un- 
happy man who had sought to escape by clinging to 
its hem and left him to be strangled In the open 
street. 

And the day on which this thing came to pass, as 
had been foretold, was the fourteenth day of the 
month of Achoura in the year 1792. 



CHAPTER XXVIII 

THE DARWISHES 

'' Give me the knife that my flesh desires: 
As it longed for the licking tongues of fires. 

More hard than the rocks where the falcon flies 
Is the way to the Prophet's Paradise. 
The lash on my loins has fallen like hail. 
See! I offer my shaven head to the nail!" 

" Barbary Sheep." 

October 6th, 19 13. 

LONG before I went to Constantlne I had 
heard strange tales of the Aissaoua; of 
their weird mystic practices and the tortures 
they steel themselves to endure, in pursuance of the 
theory that the innocent may expiate the sins of the 
guilty by suffering physically In their stead. 

It so chanced that shortly after my arrival in the 
city, the followers of Mahmed-ben-Aissa held high 
festival and it was most disappointing to find that 
for the last four years Europeans have been strictly 
prohibited from attending. If the hotel guide may 
be believed this regulation was due to a lady, who 
was present at the rites and so completely lost her 
head, that she threw some article or other at the 

29s 



296! A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

adepts and went off Into hysterics I As Constantlne 
is a hotbed of fanaticism, it is not surprising that 
the authorities are anxious to prevent the recurrence 
of such folly, for the Order take themselves very 
seriously indeed. Their chief doctrine is that of 
continual aspiration for the Divine, culminating in 
an absorption in God so absolute that physical morti- 
fications and bodily sufferings can no longer affect 
nerves, or senses. They cut themselves with knives 
and torture themselves by fire. In commemoration 
of their founder they swallow scorpions, glass and 
stones, for when his disciples were an hungered Mah- 
med-ben-ATssa bade them eat what they saw on the 
road. His cult seems to have been modelled on 
that of the Haidarya, a sect of Darwishes he met 
with in Egypt on his return from a pilgrimage to 
Mecca. He entered into close relationship with 
them and learned the narcotic properties of hemp 
and hachich, of which the Soufi Hai'dar is said to 
have been the discoverer and to have given to his 
disciples. Hachich (unlike kif)^ has no deteriorat- 
ing effects on the physique of the smoker: It acts 
solely upon the mind, producing a state of ecstasy 
and religious hallucinations. Needless to add 
" That way madness lies " and It can be well under- 
stood the Aissaoua is not an Order to be trifled with. 
They are not, however, the sole exponents of asceti- 
cism and self torture in Constantlne, for there exists 
also a body of mystics whom the French call " Les 
Trembleurs," and the guides designate as " Dar- 

1 A preparation of opium. 



THE DARWISHES 297 

wishes." They at first posed as dissidents from the 
Ai'ssaoua and now of the Rahmanya, but in reahty 
they are followers of Bou-Aly, a m'rabet of the Kad- 
rya, who was repudiated by his Order as he wished 
to modify their rule and found a new Confrerle him- 
self. It may easily be seen that this strange Broth- 
erhood, of various titles, occupy a somewhat anom- 
alous position in the Mussulman hierarchy and they 
are actually and openly disavowed by the established 
Orders. Notwithstanding this, there is no doubt 
that secret relations exist between them and it has 
been suggested that the Rahmanya of Constantine 
are unofficial, unacknowledged emissaries deputed to 
impress the laity by public exhibitions of miracles 
and self torture. 

Having obtained permission from the Prefecture, 
I arranged to be present at a performance to be 
given by adepts on the following Sunday night in an 
unpretentious ZaouTa, which I had visited in the day 
time when groups of small boys were being instructed 
in the Koran. The little chapel is built in memory 
of an ascetic whom some call SIdl Aissa and some 
Sidi Ammar. His tomb occupies the northwest an- 
gle of the building and is walled round at some dis- 
tance, thus forming an Inner chamber for prayer 
with a door facing the one entrance to the Zaouia 
on the south side. It seemed to me that at night the 
mihrdb had been removed to enable the attendants 
to pass from one room to another. There were 
two of these: a negro, with a mefrek to keep order, 
his head surmounted by an enormous yellow turban 



298 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

in contrast to his blue Turkish trousers and short 
coat. The other was a Mahommedan; possibly 
one of the Brotherhood. 

A room which, but for rows upon rows of hanging 
lanterns and glass lamps at one side, would be abso- 
lutely devoid of any furnishings and, In their fore- 
front, a large candelabra which alone is lit to Illu- 
mine a scene of closely packed humanity. A strange 
repressed eagerness and excitement fills the air and 
it is heavy with the overpowering odour of a dark 
skinned race. 

From low down beside the north wall rises a deaf- 
ening din of flutes and tomtoms. The players are 
crouched against it, almost hidden by rows of white 
turbaned, white-robed Mussulmen, covering the 
floor, save for an empty zigzag in their midst. 
Standing in the centre, body and head above the 
audience and trembling violently, so that every mus- 
cle quivers, is an adept clad only in a shirt of vivid 
pink. He moves restlessly, with uncanny gestures, 
to and fro, staring about him, a half mad cunning in 
his eyes. 

Two other darwishes are squatted, close to and 
facing the musicians. They rock themselves back- 
wards and forwards, chanting their invocations to 
Allah, in a quick rhythm timed to the beat of the 
tomtoms, with high pitched monotonous tones which 
lead to physical exhaustion and cerebral delirium. 
Red handkerchiefs cover their heads which they pull 
down over their eyes, but he of the pink gandoura 



THE DARWISHES 299 

has bared his shaven head and the little tuft of hair, 
by which he hopes one day to be lifted to high 
Heaven, falls in loose strands about his neck. 
Gradually, gradually, he works himself into a state 
of frenzy: finally, he demands a knife. It is 
brought from the inner room and passed on from 
one man to another till it reaches him, who continu- 
ally calls for it, and he runs it into his neck up to the 
hilt and leaves it sticking there: an odious object, 
with its suggestion of physical torture; the curved 
handle projecting beyond the outline of his head. 

To all appearance the audience is impassive, but 
that felt, repressed, unseen excitement grows, inten- 
sifies. A wave of such emotion passing through 
the crowd sends up the temperature still higher : 
the scent of sweating human beings is well nigh un- 
endurable. 

They move at last with relief which lessens the 
tension, for the attendant has brought water in a 
silver pail, "beautifully chased and with long chains 
gathered together and caught at the end in a ring. 
The spectators drink thirstily; the vessel passes from 
hand to hand and is quickly emptied. Meantime 
the darwish, staggering about In an attempted con- 
tinuance of his epileptic dance, suddenly collapses 
in a heap upon the floor. The negro, rolling his 
eyes till only the whites seem visible, goes to his aid 
and covers him with a burnous, beneath which his 
form still trembles, and presently, from the corner 
where he lies, is brought the knife he used and a lit- 
tle silver bowl of blood. 



300 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

The tomtoms and the chants have never ceased: 
they stimulate the frenzy of the brain and another 
adept Is ready for the torture. He comes forward 
swaying; places his hands on the attendant's shoul- 
ders to give him the kiss of forgiveness for the suf- 
fering about to be inflicted: then, stands firm whilst 
skewers are run into his cheeks, his ears, across his 
mouth slantwise, distorting his features, and his jaw 
Is half hidden by the wooden handles. 

Water is brought again for the spectators and a 
fascinating little pipe with mounts of green velvet 
and gold, which is given to the first adept, who has 
crawled to a place In line with those who look on. 
The drug is wonderful and does its work speedily. 
After a few whiffs he Is up on his feet; offering him- 
self again — a willing ecstatic victim, to have skew- 
ers thrust into the flesh of his arms. He has passed 
on the pipe to the third of the Brotherhood, who, 
racked by a trembling which simulates ague, is pre- 
paring himself for the ordeal by fire. 

Now a little space is cleared for the negro. He 
has laid aside his stick and the flaming torch he car- 
ries lights up his sombre countenance. All around 
him are heads swathed in white muslin, but the 
gathering is too absorbed to dream of their own 
danger. 

The adept's shirt has been slipped off under his 
burnous and he is practically naked to the waist. A 
superb, powerfully built, muscular body that has 
been cast in bronze ! Holding his thin woollen gar- 
ment at arm's length from himself, he takes the flam- 



THE DAR WISHES 301 

ing torch and, mass of fire that it is, lays it on his 
breast, bends his face down into it, plays the leaping 
flames over his naked arms, lifts it to his head, 
where it catches the handkerchief which partly falls 
in charred fragments, lets it die down and smoulder 
on his neck till it slowly flickers out. 

His body is without scar or blemish. A mira- 
cle. . . . 



CHAPTER XXIX 

A STROLL AND A MORNING CALL 

"Never! Do you hear? 'Never will we open 
our harems; never will we expose our wives, our 
mothers, our sisters to the gaze of men: never shall 
the marriage ceremony of the Koran be enlarged, 
or modified: never will we permit a European to 
become the husband of a Mahomedan. Rather 
that our women should die, than be thus cheap- 
ened." L'ame Musulmane. 

October loth, 1913. 
OWEVER curious and even exciting to 
some may be the Constantine of the past, 
for those who are not anxious to dive Into 
Its historical records, the city Is quite sufficiently In- 
teresting and unusual In the present and I never tired 
of strolling about its narrow steep alleys, or of 
watching Its Inhabitants busily engaged In various 
trades. At first they stared and wondered why I 
came so often, but they soon accepted me as a part 
of the dally routine and even greeted me, or said 
to each other " Here comes the Mademoiselle " In 
quite a friendly manner. This, however, was 
largely due to Zlla. 

We made each other's acquaintance one day at 

303 





Copyright Mrs. Walter Crcyk 



A Street in Constantine 



A STROLL AND A MORNING CALL 303 

the school Paul Bert, where she was learning to 
weave and embroider and to be a useful, intelligent 
little girl as well as a pretty one. Had she not been 
a granddaughter of so great a personage as a 
^M'rabet of the Ai'ssaoua, she might even have 
learned to read and write with a few lucky ones, not 
so highly born as herself, but tradition was too strong 
in her home to permit anything so extraordinary — 
not to say wicked — the wonder was that she was 
allowed to go to school at all. 

To begin with, she would, only look at me shyly 
with bright brown eyes and remained absolutely 
mute, but remembering how sugar loosens the 
tongue I soon succeeded in making her talk. After 
that, on Fridays and Sundays, she used to lie in wait 
for me and, turning some corner, or passing a door- 
way, In my favourite haunts, I would find her little 
muffled form close beside me and a small hand gently 
touching my skirt. 

Only one surly old M'rabet, with a large chaplet 
of black and white beads hung conspicuously round 
his neck, objected to our growing friendship. He 
scowled at us both when we met him, bringing a 
frightened look into Zila's eyes and, calling her 
away, he talked to her angrily, whilst l waited 
within hail, not appearing to pay any heed. The 
scolding over, I was pleased to see that she was not 
too intimidated to make an ugly face at his dignified 
retreating figure, for I did not want to lose my new 
friend. She ran back to me again and we mutually 
avoided the subject as unsatisfactory when there 



304 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

were other, more important matters to discuss, such 
as the relative value of surprise packets, costing one 
sou, In the sweet stuff shops. The M'rabet's warn- 
ings against the roumya were soon forgotten In the 
excitement of buying and eating. What a greedy 
little mouth it was to be sure; with its full, project- 
ing, lower lip 1 

When Zila's Im.mediate wants were satisfied we 
wandered together through tortuous lanes lined on 
both sides by wall cupboards, with all manner of 
things on sale ; then, crab fashion we might arrive in 
the rue des Tanneurs, which runs right down to the 
Rhumel. There the smell of leather and the noise 
of the blacksmiths' anvils drove us back again into 
some quiet impasse, to find that two men had set up 
a mysterious wooden apparatus for winding long 
strands of silk on to bobbins by means of a big wheel 
moved by a handle. 

The shops of the Mussulman quarter present daily 
an interesting series of tableaux vivants, each pic- 
ture in its own frame and each on a tiny stage raised 
just above the level of the illpaved street. Every 
trade has its representatives, who confine themselves 
to one alley, or a portion of It, working away in the 
pubHc eye within a box set on end with the lid off. 
At the top of the rue de Serlgny, which is more of a 
staircase than a street, the shoemakers are busy on 
both sides of the steps and In ten minutes it might 
be possible to see a slipper pass through all its stages 
of manufacture by watching first one vendor and 
then another: further down are butchers, bakers. 



A STROLL AND A MORNING CALL 305 

fruiterers. The grocers have taken up a position 
in the rue Perregaux. Behind the narrow counters 
thereabouts are to be seen the fat, pasty faces of 
M'Zabites, patient, toiling, thrifty, consumed by one 
thought and hope of a speedy end to their term of 
exile and a return to their beloved cities of Ghar- 
daia, Mehka, Beni-Isguen, where dwell wives and 
children by the wonderful palm gardens of the far 
south. No doubt because they are congregated in 
the vicinity, an enterprising photographer took it 
into his head to label one of his pictures " Mosque 
M'Zabite." It is a very beautiful and very mysteri- 
ous little place, at the corner of the rue Perregaux 
and the rue des Tanneurs, with an inscription above 
its portals in green and gold. He is quite wrong 
however, for no broken pyramid surmounts the roof, 
and I have been assured that there is no such thing 
as a M'Zabite mosque in all Constantine; but per- 
haps, like myself, he was refused admission and 
jumped to a false conclusion. 

*' It is not wise to ask to enter," said a guide 
who saw me on the threshold, so I took Zila to it 
and said to her: " What is that place? I may not 
enter there." She gave an all-sufficient reason: " It 
is a School for Saints ! " 

Another day my little companion lingered by a 
large open room in a quiet back street and told me 
its occupants were m'rabets. On seeing us one of 
them, a visionary with dreamy eyes, came forward 
to tell me that he and his colleague were there to 
give alms and assistance to the poor. Not from 



3o6 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

Zila, but from quite another source I subsequently 
learned that the ascetic Mussulman was something of 
a wizard. My informant added that occasionally 
men, even very holy men, married djinns by whom 
they were taught magic arts. Such men might not 
be content with the ordinary ablutions before 
prayer,^ as enjoined by the Koran, but must wash all 
over every day. This particular m'rahet would give 
advice and predict the future for a small fee, so I 
resolved to consult him. 

The interview was most amusing! The poor 
m'rabet was so entirely at a loss to account for such 
a strange being as an unmarried woman, living all 
alone in a foreign country, with no apparent motive 
or occupation. All the more was I a puzzle as he 
could not speak French and probably knew next to 
nothing about Europeans and their eccentric ways 
and customs. 

The climax was reached when he requested me to 
hold tightly in my hand a piece of blank paper, in 
which he had wrapped a franc, and he made passes 
over my closed fist before I opened it again. When 
I did so and the paper was unfolded, the franc had 
disappeared and on the half sheet was a picture 
(obviously cut from some tailor's advertisement) 
of a terrible young man divided up into measure- 
ments to facilitate the purchase of a suit by post. 

Till then I had remained as grave and impassive 
as the m'rabet himself, knowing full well that there 

1 Before prayer a Mussulman must wash his face, his hands, his 
arras to the elbows and his feet. 



A STROLL AND A MORNING CALL 307 

is nothing an Arab resents more than being made fun 
of; but " the man I might have married " was too 
much for me and I broke into a peal of laughter. 
This greatly excited some women, who had come in 
singly (all muffled up of course) to consult Sir Ora- 
cle, and they called out " Shouf ! Shouf I " ^ They 
crowded round me to look at the picture and were 
curious to know what had amused me, only think- 
ing the m'rabet marvellously clever, so I left them 
without any attempt at explanation, to be further im- 
pressed, no doubt, by the magic of the djinn's hus- 
band. 

It must not be supposed that the whole Mussulman 
town is given up to shops and busy traders; that all 
the streets are noisy and often made impassable by 
troops of heavily laden donkeys, whose burdens are 
knocked off in the press of people pushing amongst 
them. 

Far from it: there are innumerable mosques at 
quiet corners; large baths; cafe maures, for the 
idlers to gossip in and listen to sweet singing birds 
or tomtoms and flutes as they toy with their little 
cups. There is many a lane and impasse lined with 
tall mysterious houses, from which none issue forth, 
nor demand entrance. They have windows high 
up, but no one looks out of those tiny panes: there 
are knockers to closed doors — a hand, an iron 
ring — but no one ever raises them. A passerby is 
rare. It may be a well clad Mussulman slowly pur- 

2 Let us look. 



3o8 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

suing his way elsewhere: or even, a great lady, 
whose eyes alone are visible above her yashmak of 
white gauze, and whose attendant follows closely 
on her heels, carying a piece of brocade or of bright 
hued silk just purchased from an Arab in the rue 
Vieux; or from the Jews in the rue de France or 
the alleys behind it, where 8,000 of them herd to- 
gether and grow rich. A door must open some- 
where to admit her. If only I, too, could cross the 
threshold! This became my great ambition: to 
penetrate into one of these great silent dwellings. 
The hotel guide did his best for me; or only pre- 
tended to, perhaps, knowing all the while his task 
was hopeless. He made elusive appointments for 
the morning and then altered the hour to later in the 
day. He even took me to the courtyard of a man- 
sion, part of which jutted out and formed an arch 
over the narrow street. I was enchanted, but alas! 
the servitor within the entrance stared in amazement 
and gravely shook his head at my demand for ad- 
mission through the inner, fast shut door. It was a 
problem, but Zila solved it and crying " Open Se- 
same " took me into her own home. 

One day — it was the 3rd of October — Zila 
went to school in very smart attire. She was 
dressed in pale mauve brocade, too plentifully 
trimmed with black lace. Placed coquettishly on 
one side of her head she wore the little pointed bon- 
net of the Constantinoise, which is in shape like a 
small inverted funnel, and which she kept in position 
with a white fringed kerchief draped over it and 



A STROLL AND A MORNING CALL 309 

tied round her head. In front she had placed a tiny 
wreath of purple and white flowers, and her long 
plait was covered with a rose coloured ribbon, wound 
round and round it till not a hair was visible, and 
fastejied on to the end with a safety pin was a 
broader length which dangled down her back. It 
turned out that the Order of the ATssaoua, of which 
her grandfather was a m'rabet, had been holding 
high festival on the preceding day and she was still 
in her costume de fete. " All the others too," she 
added, and in five minutes it was arranged that she 
should take me to see her relations in their finery 
after school was over. 

Instead of Zila lying in wait for me, on this oc- 
casion I waylaid her, having first Invested in two 
large packets of sweets. No doubt her little mouth 
watered, for she had to carry one parcel and It was 
tied up with beautiful gilt cord which I did not offer 
to undo. 

It amused me to find that for some reason, or 
other, best known to herself, she led me at top speed 
by a long and circuitous route. Perhaps she thought 
It wise to try and puzzle me by way of precaution 
and so prevent me from paying a second call and 
making myself a nuisance to her family. 

We dived down alleys, turned corners, passed un- 
der arches — Zila ahead all the while and looking 
back, now and again, over her shoulder — and at 
last I discovered that we were crossing the rue de 
France to a part of the town I had not yet explored. 
We went up a short hilly street on the right side of 



3IO A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

which was a slope with a handrail. Here my guide 
paused: we had arrived. 

At the second door Zila knocked, and together we 
entered a long, narrow, flagged passage, at the fur- 
ther end of which was another open door, with an 
enormous woman seated on the step. She rose when 
she saw me and opposed her bulky form to mine, 
but calling out '^ Roumya" I slipped quickly past 
her for, luckily, she was not quite wide enough to 
block the way. 

I stood in a large, square court with walls and 
pillars that had been washed a vivid blue, and a 
gallery running right round. It was empty save for 
a little boy of about seven or eight who was play- 
ing a lonely game of his own invention on the red 
bricked floor. Zila had vanished, but presently she 
reappeared and invited me to go upstairs, where 
there were four large apartments with barred aper- 
tures for air, and white curtains over each doorway. 
They were filled with women and quite young chil- 
dren. 

Spread over the floors in every direction and on 
the wide wooden dokanat, In such a manner as to 
accommodate the greatest possible number, were 
rows of mattresses with long, narrow, rose-pink pil- 
lows covered with white muslin slips. All the roorng 
were beautifully clean and tidy; nobody and nothing 
out of place. There was no furniture of any de- 
scription, but in another apartment, where I was not 
Invited to enter, I could get a glimpse of a writing 
tabic, or cabinet, and some chairs. 



A STROLL AND A MORNING CALL 311 

Except for their red, black, or gold embroidered 
shoes, which they had slipped off in the gallery out- 
side, the occupants of the rooms were fully dressed 
in silk, or brocade, and a few in less costly clothes. 
Some were sound asleep : most of the others got up 
when they saw a visitor and somebody fetched a 
chair and put it in the gallery. Then they came 
flocking round me, especially the children who 
clung about my knees and stared at me with solemn, 
big, brown eyes. One friendly little creature, 
dressed in deep purple silk, with a round green and 
gold embroidered cap set on one side, rushed off and 
brought a black and white kitten, which was plumped 
down on my lap. 

I sat in the gallery for about an hour, just watch- 
ing the women • — about forty of them perhaps — 
come and go, pass and repass, upstairs and down- 
stairs : everyone in most gorgeous attire and wonder- 
ful combinations of vivid colours, and everyone of 
them purposeless and idle. It was interesting to no- 
tice that they were neither tatooed, nor so much 
rouged, as the poor class of women I had come across 
and I was glad to have an opportunity of confirming 
by my own experience what hitherto I had only 
learned through the eyes of others. The one most 
" made up " was a very grand and haughty young 
woman with a large fat face that would soon coarsen 
into ugliness and that, without the saving grace of a 
pleasant expression. She came from a room into 
which I had not been admitted and was dragp!;ing a 
tiny child by the hand as she slowly sailed along the 



312 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

gallery. She was robed in pale blue brocade with 
a head-dress of a darker shade, and dependent from 
it at the back, to the very edge of her skirt, was a 
" follow me lads " in a tint of warm terra cotta. 
No English great lady could have better feigned the 
most complete ignorance of the presence of an un- 
asked, unpleasant and unwelcome guest than did she. 

In striking contrast to her manner was that of an 
elderly and very gracious little person, with the 
bright attractive eyes of an intelligent animal. She 
was dressed, most suitably to her age, in wine col- 
oured silk, with a white lace flounce, over an under- 
skirt (which she took care to let me see) of bright 
yellow brocade and had arranged black and gold 
drapery over her hair. 

There were others in shades of yellow varying 
from pale lemon to deep sulphur and yet more in 
blue, which seemed a favourite colour, but the pick 
of the brocades was one patterned with large moon 
daisies. 

In nearly every case the women's quaint, pointed 
headgear was worn under silk, or spangled veiling, 
and kept in place by charming gold chains, formed 
of links and fastened under the chin ; whilst the chil- 
dren put their bonnets outside their kerchiefs and 
had them covered with velvet, either red or green 
and sometimes both. A number wore artificial 
flowers, especially wreathes or bunches of jasmine, 
fastened in the draperies on their heads, in honour 
of the festival of the preceding day. 

The standards of Islam which had been used for 



A STROLL AND A MORNING CALL 313 

the procession were furled and fastened against the 
supports of the gallery at one end of the court and 
would have further identified the house as belonging 
to a m'rabet, had I been in doubt as to Zila's parent- 
age. They were presently displayed to me with 
great pride by her father who appeared on the 
scenes quite suddenly at midday. Seeing him I left 
the gallery and went down into the court to explain 
my presence and, with true Arab courtesy and hos- 
pitality, he concealed any surprise he may have felt, 
made me most welcome and invited me to breakfast 
in the kitchen where sat his mother (to whom he in- 
troduced me) and the fat portress, who no longer 
eyed me with suspicion. He and I had bread, melon 
and coffee, which was all excellent fare, in a spotless 
kitchen of which any European servant might have 
been proud. After we had finished our meal, the 
master of the house took me into another portion of 
the premises, where a great quantity of meat was be- 
ing cut up for couscous, and after I had admired the 
house to his genuine pleasure and satisfaction, and 
had thanked him most cordially for a delightful visit, 
I bowed myself out. 

A few days later most regretfully I bade a long 
farewell to my little friend Zila and to Constantine. 



CHAPTER XXX 

THE GATE OF THE DESERT 

" Of all the places in Algeria, none is more fa- 
mous. There, the contrast' is sharpest between 
the rocky plateau and the oasis; the Orient sud- 
denly appears behind a Golden Gate." 

Elisee Reclus. 

" Derviche, marabout, un fou, cest-a-dire un 
saint." E. Fromentin. 

October i^th, 19 13. 

IT is said of Constantine that the climate is a poor 
one ; too hot in summer, too cold in winter, only 
at Its best in spring : but whether it was chance 
or luck, I had nothing to complain of during my au- 
tumnal visit, except on the morning of my departure. 
It simply poured ! 

Sorry as I was to leave, yet there lay at the back 
of my mind a longing for the south, which was daily 
becoming more and more Insistent and the torren- 
tial rain put the finishing touch to its strength. Oh ! 
for the magic of sun and sand! 

So intense Is the desire in some cases that it 
amounts almost to physical illness and I have seen a 
man greet the first desert sunrise he had seen for 
many a long day, with a thanksgiving in his falter- 

314 




o 






THE GATE OF THE DESERT 315 

ing voice that betrayed a joy so great as to be akin 
to tears. He had thrown up an excellent berth in Al- 
giers to volunteer for service in the Sahara and when 
he found himself back in it again ; in the light which 
makes for transfiguration; in the clear pure air which 
is the untainted breath of Heaven, he was as a sick 
man who is suddenly healed. 

Robust, practical people " with no nonsense about 
them" will probably exclaim, "What folly!" or, 
" All fudge ! " nor is it likely that personal experi- 
ence would do aught but confirm them in this sensi- 
ble opinion. They will probably be more in sym- 
pathy with the party of tourists, who left Biskra to 
camp out in the desert, but for whom one day 
amongst the sand dunes was enough! They fled 
back to the busy haunts of man, appalled by the si- 
lence. Clearly these folk should spend their days 
in hotels and casinos : it is all a matter of tempera- 
ment. To those for whom the desert is not silent, 
it calls with a persistence that cannot be gainsaid. 

In six hours I was at the gate of the enchanted 
country : at the bridge ^ which crosses the river 
Funm es-Sahara,^ as the Arabs have christened the 
water which flows amongst the boulders, through a 
basin shut in by grey rocky slopes. A dreary for- 
bidding entrance between high, pitiless, limestone 
rocks such as always properly guard the beauties of 
fairy tale land expressly to frighten away the un- 
welcome and timorous. Pass boldly through be- 
tween them and hey presto ! there are luxuriant palm 

^Kantara. 2 Mouth of the Desert. 



316 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

gardens covering acres of space and populous vil- 
lages — villages so different as to form quite a study 
In themselves. It is extraordinary that there could 
be such diversity in the clumps of huts, or groups of 
hamlets, which go to the making of a Berber dash- 
era.^ Each successive one that I visited seemed to 
have a character of its own; frequently, but not al- 
ways, decided by the surrounding landscape. 

To begin with, there is one about five miles to the 
northwest of El Kantara and therefore, properly 
speaking, outside the gate. Before the memory of 
man a tribe wandered into the Tilatou valley — per- 
haps on their way south — and never got any fur- 
ther. They found it so lovely that they stayed in 
the very centre of the Gorges amongst the rocks and 
the narrow mountain paths and tracks, along which 
an enemy could only come upon them at great peril 
to himself. It may be they were lazy folk and were 
glad to be spared the trouble of building shelters of 
any kind. Here Nature had made ready for them 
rock dwellings, into which they crept and in which 
generation after generation has been content to live, 
with but an opening in the roof to let the smoke out 
and a rude construction in front to ensure a little 
more privacy. Some such business was on hand the 
afternoon I rode through and the women were do- 
ing the hardest part of the job, running away down 
the steep slopes after one another and clambering 
up again, with the sure-footedness of the goats, in 
whose skins they carried it. They were wild crea- 

3 Village. 



THE GATE OF THE DESERT 317 

tures with fluttering bright hued rags which just 
covered their lithe forms and the guide was apolo- 
getic, explaining that they were mountain savages and 
had no manners, which was true. As soon as I had 
given them all the pennies I had with me and showed 
them my empty purse, they shrieked " Emshi! Em- 
shi! Emshi! " ^ with one accord and tried to push 
me on my way: most unlike the hospitable Arabs. 

No one meets with such discourtesy and unkind- 
ness on the other side of the Gate, In the three vil- 
lages of Constantine's most northern oasis. Ex- 
cepting guides, the inhabitants are busy amongst the 
palms which are at their best and most beautiful just 
now: a study In rich greens and golden browns. 
Every mule and hourriquot has been requisitioned : 
their panlers are filled with luscious dates, or with 
the flexible, coral pink fibre which held them to- 
gether in great bunches on the trees. 

The " mad Marabout " ^ of Khrekar, either by 
pure chance, or In obedience to a colour sense some- 
how developed In his misty brain, has attired him- 
self In a long robe which harmonises with the food 
Allah has so bountifully provided for His children 
In the desert. He Is not held in much account by 
the educated Mussulmen, not having inherited the 
title to holiness from a long line of priest magicians. 
He Is playing at It, they say rather contemptuously; 
but amongst the humbler, who have no claim to " a 

4 Go! Go! Go! 

5 French word used equally for m'rabet, saint, fool, madman, or 
tomb of a saint. 



3i8 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

little learning," I am sure he Is regarded as one of 
God's saints on earth, and that it is known to them, 
he has attained to one of the seven degrees of illu- 
mination, by which alone It is possible to be spirit- 
ually perfect. He is clearly a harmless visionary 
by the dreamy, far-away, guileless look in his mild 
blue eyes and, if the colour of his robe has been 
chosen by design and not by accident, he Is an adept, 
whose lights number 40,000 and whose soul Is in 
ecstasy. He comes down the village street at the 
pace of the rhythm of his endless monotonous chant, 
always the same phrases over and over and over 
again, which has helped to create his chaotic condi- 
tion of mind, whilst satisfying his imperious demand 
for eternity; a craving stronger than reason. 

The mad marabout in his golden brown gandoiira 
is but a part and parcel of life in these three vil- 
lages, which have been christened White and Black 
and Red: the first two merely to complete a trilogy 
and as a foil to Dahraoui'a with its warm red walls, 
which the sun touches so lovingly at eventide, deep- 
ening and intensifying their tones. This is the char- 
acteristic of the Village Rouge, which stretches pic- 
turesquely along the right bank of the river above 
the green of the palms and their brown fruit, its 
approaches lying through cactus groves where stands 
a cone shaped kouba. 



VILLAGES OF THE SOUTH 

'^Nous parlous du pays qui resplendit la-bas, 
tres loin, sous le prestigieux soleil." 

ISABELLE EbERHARDT. 

" Visitez les tombes des Saints du Dieu Puissant. 
Elles sont parees de vetements impregnes de muse. 
Que sillonnent des eclairs d'or pur." 

SiDi Khalil. 

November i^th, 1913. 

THE idea of distance from one place to an- 
other is best conveyed to Arabs by the 
length of time occupied in traversing it on 
shank's mare. If asked by them how long it takes 
to get from Paris to London, to say seven and a half 
hours would be worse than futile, as they have not 
the slightest conception of the swiftness of our trains 
and boats, so would immediately reply in astonished 
tones: "They are quite near together then!" 
Thus, now-a-days, is speed constantly annihilating 
space and thus, even the Desert, is being telescoped 
towards Europe. 

A short while since the Sahara of Constantlne was 
a country afar off : within six months, or so, the new 
railway line from Biskra will bring it within two 

319 



320 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

days' journey of Philllppeville, the port. Globe 
trotters who have skirted the fringe of the Desert in 
the morning, may be In Touggourt, near the heart 
of it, at setting of the sun. 

At present, however, the only means of convey- 
ance for tourists, who are not also millionaires. Is 
the light springless cart (" courrler postal ") which 
takes the mails In twenty-eight hours (plus a night's 
rest at M'rai'er) over a track which has turned the 
driver's hair snow white, though he is one of the 
most powerfully built men I have ever seen, and is 
still under thirty. 

As 225 miles lay between me and the capital of 
the Souf, whither I was bound, I was anxious to be 
spared all unnecessary fatigue and shirked the pros- 
pect of playing the game of a post parcel for two 
days and a night, even if labelled, " This side up 
with care." The railway was only finished as far 
as Djemaa and had not yet been opened. No pas- 
senger trains were running but, thanks to the cour- 
tesy of the Chef de I'Annexe at Biskra, for which 
I was deeply grateful, I was granted special permis- 
sion to travel as merchandise and spent the greater 
part of ten hours in the company of casks of nails. 

Even had I been forced to avail myself of the 
cart, I must have gone, for what would it have mat- 
tered how tired I was? What does anything mat- 
ter if one can only get well over the borders of fairy- 
land? 

Of course Djemaa was under the wizard's rule ! 
Long violet shadows empurpled the earth reflecting 



VILLAGER OF THE SOUTH 321 

masses that the sun had coloured rose. A crescent 
moon had revealed itself prematurely in the heavens 
and had helped to lighten the sombre green of the 
trees to the paler hue of pistachio nut. I walked be- 
tween gardens, on a carpet, so thick that Caliban's 
admonition " to tread softly, that the blind mole 
may not hear they foot fall " would have been need- 
less. White robed gliding figures led me to a lake, 
as still as glass, amid a grove of palms. Others 
met and welcomed me : one, in bright scarlet, that 
defied the magic of the sun and moon, touched my 
outstretched hand and then his own lips in greeting. 

How had I come? Was it by auto? they all 
questioned, for in this especial kingdom Cinderella's 
enchanted coach is no longer drawn by horses; but 
I — was not Cinderella ! 

Retracing my steps, I faced a line of low white 
buildings and saw a figure, muffled up in black, run- 
ning swiftly, ever so swiftly, as if in fear; then wait- 
ing, watching at the corner of a narrow street; finally 
vanishing away in dark shadows of the night, that 
had suddenly overtaken her and me. 

In the morning the wizard was busying himself 
elsewhere. The world was very real and the sun 
hot, even at 9.30, when I climbed into the little pos- 
tal cart for the last stage of this journey. I was feel- 
ing a little the worse for wear after travelling as a 
bale of goods on the previous day. Twenty miles 
of terrible jolting behind three mules and the post- 
man delivered a dejected-looking object at the hotel 
about five o'clock. 



322 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

I had arrived at Touggourt just in time for high 
market, which is held on Fridays, though it may well 
be said that there is a perpetual fair at this Queen of 
Oases. It holds the proud position of being an im- 
portant junction for the caravan routes to Ouargla, 
the M'Zab and the Souf. In November business 
is so brisk that it overflows into the Grande Place, 
for the dates have been picked and packed into hun- 
dreds of thousands of little oblong boxes, piled up 
ready for transit by carts, mules, donkeys and espe- 
cially by camels. 

During my week's visit, it was a daily affair to 
see long caravans start off through the deep sand 
northwards, laden with deglet-en-nur, the most suc- 
culent and superior variety; as well as soft, sweet, 
white and red dates, which all flourish in the palm 
gardens, once described as being on the banks of the 
salt lake of Ghemora. The lake has disappeared: 
much marshy land has been reclaimed and, by means 
of artificial irrigation, Touggourt will again become 
the fertile, rich oasis of a prehistoric age. The 
ever shifting sand dunes, that the winds toy with, 
gradually buried the vegetation in a golden ava- 
lanche, but numberless artesian wells are restoring 
a dead country to life once more. Even after the 
French occupation, nearly a third of the caravan 
route from Biskra lay through arid steppe: not a 
tree, nor a well visible anywhere in fifty miles, where 
now are flourishing, populated oases. 

The water problem was grappled with for gene- 
rations by the Rhetassa, a section of the black- 



VILLAGES OF THE SOUTH 323 

skinned Rouaras Inhabiting this region, who had the 
monopoly of constructing the wells. Their phy- 
sique became singularly well adapted for their primi- 
tive methods of working and they were able to 
remain nearly three minutes under water without suf- 
fering any apparent inconvenience. However, ma- 
chinery has stepped in and supplanted them in their 
dangerous diving operations, though I believe they 
are still employed in some districts, to do battle with 
the accumulations of sand, which are always threa^ 
ening to choke the wells. These increase in number 
yearly and with them the date harvest: therefore, it 
may be confidently expected that, when the coming 
railway facilitates speedier transit, the French Gov- 
ernment will be recompensed for their immense ex- 
penditure on irrigation in the South and that many 
fortunes will be made in the Valley of the Oued Rhir. 
There are rumours, too, of a casino that is to be 
built, and other attractions for tourists, which will 
all tend to the founding of a second Biskra, where 
Touggourt now is, and it will be robbed of its beauty 
by day and its serenity by night. Come what may, 
the sun must still be resplendent and glorify the gold- 
en sand hills, but they will get hidden and pushed 
far away from the precincts of the town. When the 
red and purple dies out of the evening sky, will the 
magician still linger to wave his wand and turn New 
Touggourt into a snow city? Now, when the moon 
rises white walls, lightly touched by silver, line 
squares all powdered thickly with white dust, whose 
inhabitants have been frozen into a profound sleep. 



324 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

Outside the town are snowy banks and a vast, far 
reaching plain where, now and again, a solitary 
palm, bearing testimony to a vegetation long extinct, 
throws its long black shadow on the pale ground. 
If any figures moved, would they be real or phan- 
toms of the dead, buried in the sand, which every 
night rolls down softly, noiselessly, seeking to engulf 
the marble tombs, only to be carefully removed when 
morning comes and man renews his endless struggle 
against Nature. 

Beyond the sculptured stones are queer-shaped 
flints. In hundreds, marking the little mounds be- 
neath which rest Arabs and Rouaras; and, far away, 
its cupolas lost In clouds of darkness, rises a mauso- 
leum to protect the graves of kings. 

For there was a Sultan of Touggourt as late as a 
century ago, whose authority was absolute and who 
was hedged round by much oriental state and cere- 
monial. To reach him In his stronghold, it was nec- 
essary to pass through seven doors, each one of them 
guarded by negro slaves. He only shed the light of 
his tanned visage on his subjects once a week: on 
Fridays when, as a good Mussulman, he attended 
the mosque. Standing near the old town, with its 
crumbling walls of houses, that have their founda- 
tions on the sand, I could picture him riding forth 
into the desert, preceded by musicians, accompanied 
by a negro body guard, black runners at his stirrups 
and an enormous parasol over his head. 

The scene I actually witnessed, though perhaps 
less awe inspiring and Eastern, was equally gay and 



VILLAGES OF THE SOUTH 325 

picturesque. Flags draped the white buildings of 
the Bureau Arabe and, on either side its wide en- 
trance were grouped the Caids in their red official 
robes and the Cadis In blue over guenader of white 
silk. Barbaric music announced that some un- 
wonted excitement was on foot and brought the in- 
habitants flocking from all directions into the Grande 
Place, round the well In Its centre, all eager to see a 
show. 

The General was returning from a tour of Inspec- 
tion in the district and he rode up with his staff in all 
the glory of red and blue and gold, followed by 
Spahis on their restless Arab chargers and Meha- 
ristes mounted on the quick trotting camels, which 
have been called " ships of the Desert." Truly a 
brave show I 

The party had breakfasted nine miles away at the 
famous Zaou'ia of Tamelhat, with the M'rabet of 
the Tidjania. This is one of the wealthiest and 
most powerful of Mussulman Orders and the only 
one that has its origin, tradition and interests solely 
in Algeria. Its founder expressly laid down the 
rule that in no case should it be affiliated to any other 
community whatsoever. 

Attached to the Mosque and leading out of it Is 
the most beautiful kouba I have seen in the South. 
Apart from Its unusual size and height there Is noth- 
ing to distinguish the building outside, but the In- 
terior is really exquisite. 

Perhaps it Is its age — and yet It is not ancient — 
that helps to lend It a dignity which at once conveys 



326 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

the knowledge that this place is very sacred. Per- 
haps it is the sunshine, falling softly through col- 
oured glass in the lofty dome making a gentle twi- 
light reign within, that lowers voices and even 
arrests speech. Perhaps it is the high tomb of El- 
Hadj Aly, in the centre, that imposes a reverential 
hush. The walls are lost to sight behind a white 
plaster fabric that is fashioned like lace. There are 
standards and draperies, which have lost their gar- 
ishness. Time has dealt with them so tenderly that 
they are beautified, and the air faintly perfumed with 
musk, is filled with memories and prayers. 

When I visited the ZaouTa itself, to all appear- 
ances it was deserted and my enquiries as to the num- 
ber of students hidden away behind those plain walls 
and barred apertures were useless. I penetrated 
into one court, closed in by high locked doors, but 
not a soul was to be seen except my uncommunicative 
guide, who had met me at the entrance, and a negro 
boy busily knitting a white skull cap. Coffee was 
served in an apartment upstairs, off a white stone 
terrace. It was rather a fascinating room, long and 
narrow with an alcove and doors leading — who 
knows where? Its walls were painted gaily and all 
the upper part ornamented with green, red and yel- 
low arabesques and other strange devices, that re- 
minded me of my Spanish playing cards. Unfor- 
tunately, there was a French bedstead in the alcove 
by the window, a mattress on the floor and a litter 
of European furniture that suggested a boxroom in 
which unwanted odds and ends had been hastily 



VILLAGES OF THE SOUTH 327 

stowed away. I rather wondered whether I had 
disturbed the occupant of this quiet retreat, out of 
sight and sound of the world, and if he had done a 
bolt to escape the foreign woman. All the Inhabit- 
ants of that mysterious group of buildings were 
equally successful in avoiding me, except of course 
the servants, who sat outside, under cover of an ar- 
cade and on a massive stone bench, which ran along 
by the houses. 

To make up for the coldness of my reception at 
the Zaouia, the whole hamlet turned out into the 
narrow ill kept streets, which lead to it, to see me off, 
and the children followed the waggonette part of 
the way to Temacin, as escort. I had noticed the 
village when passing it in the morning and am con- 
vinced the djinns must have had a hand in its build- 
ing and that this was how it happened: — 

Once upon a time a little English boy made him- 
self a large sand castle on the sea shore, but he was 
too small to reach across the moat, with which he 
had surrounded it and plant a flagstajff in its exact 
centre, so he placed it at arm's length on the side 
nearest himself where he stood. Then at the other 
side he made an approach over the moat, so that his 
construction, which he had intended to be circular, 
became elongated at one end. 

The djinns saw the sand castle when it was fin- 
ished and said to each other : " Let us make the 
children of the Sahara build a village after this 
plan ! " and straightway Temacin rose gradually, 
situated on a slight elevation in the Desert, with the 



328 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

minaret of its Mosque rising high above the houses 
on one side. 

Then the white man came along and, having noth- 
ing to do with djinns, he drained away the water and 
made a road where the moat had been. 



CHAPTER XXXII 

DAWN AND SUNSET 

" Day hy day Thou art making me worthy of 
the simple, great gifts that Thou gavest to me un- 
asked — this sky and the light . . . saving me from 
perils of overmuch desire." 

Rabindranath Tagore. 

November, 19 13. 

THE journey to Oued-Souf Is divided Into 
stages, of from four to five hours each, by 
Government rest houses, kept by retired 
goumiers ^ who carry the mails through that strange 
deserted country, which lies between, of sand and 
sky and solitude. They take the post up from one 
another in relays, so that it goes through In a sur- 
prisingly short time. Colonists, whose business lies 
at the back of this especial beyond and who are anx- 
ious to return to civilisation at the earliest possible 
moment, push on their reluctant beasts and reach 
their destination at the end of a second day's ride. 
Dead beat, from all accounts and no wonder ! It Is 
not the distance that does It — what Is a sixty miles' 
ride on a good horse, mule or camel? — but the 
sand banks. After the first couple of hours the 

1 Soldiers belonging to native regiments. 

329 



330 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

whole question of getting to El Oued resolves itself 
into one of climbing up and then climbing down in 
deep sand, such as is hardly conceivable ; occasionally 
varied by stretches of steppe, sparsely covered with 
a dried-up vegetation peculiar to the Desert. Un- 
promising though it looks, the tender stalks of drinn 
suffice to nourish the camel, and its seeds, which 
resemble poor wheat, are often harvested by the 
nom.ads themselves for lack of more acceptable food. 

Not feeling inclined to break a record, or half 
kill myself merely to save time, I determined to take 
life easy in the solitudes and stay a night at each 
bordj? This necessitated provisions for eight days, 
both food and drink; for the well water is as salt 
as the sea and I had sufficiently tested its properties 
at Djemaa. 

A coarse brown canvas sack called a tellis was 
packed full of bottles and tins and was balanced on 
the other side of a camel by my holdall with its bulg- 
ing contents: my bath and bedding covered his 
hump, to which Mahomed, my servant, added his 
scanty baggage. The jemmal ^ possessed only his 
beast and the rags he stood up in, and he walked the 
whole way there, and back via Guemar, — 130 miles 
— in the sand. 

Thus equipped and accompanied, in the early 
dawn of an exquisite morning I started for Oued- 
Souf. 

The road out of Touggourt is excellent, skirting 
palm gardens, and the region of sand hills begins 

2 Government rest house. ^ Camel driver. 



DAWN AND SUNSET 331 

only when a stone pyramid Is reached, the first of 
several guemiras * erected about every six miles 
apart, to indicate the bewildering route. It was 
comforting to see them, but so far as I am concerned 
they would never be the slightest assistance. Had 
my mule succeeded in bolting back with me on the 
second day, as he very much hoped, even had I re- 
gained control I must have left the choice of tracks 
to his Instinct, or preferably have followed the tele- 
graph poles, rather than have trusted to my faulty 
sense of locality, supplemented only by pyramids, 
which pointed nowhere. 

By that time we were surrounded on every side 
by dunes. They rose up higher and higher, or so 
It seemed, in front, behind and on every side. The 
incomparable golden glory, that the light lends them, 
was often spoiled by deep indentations left by nom- 
ads and their beasts in their noiseless passage over 
the sides; and the ridges of the lowest were broken 
down, making minute, untidy paths for the animals 
to traverse. It was the highest hills that were beau- 
tiful: soft and smooth looking: unmarked, save for 
the feather-stitch track of the scarabel, or the little 
rippling waves due to the caprices of the wind. 

The sight of a bordj with a dome surmounting it, 
like a saint's kouba, was invariably welcome, for the 
sun was scorching after 10 o'clock. I could not al- 
ways reach shelter before blazing time, and was tired 
and hungry after four, or five, hours in such air. 

All the rest houses were built on the same plan. 

* Pyramidal sign posts. 



332 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

Cool high walls, two or three lofty rooms on one 
side of a square of building and stables on the other, 
with an open yard of sand between and the whole 
closed in at night by high gates. They were clean 
and all possessed one wooden table, covered with 
candle grease, and a few ricketty chairs. 

After three nights of such accommodation, Ma- 
dame Sagnier's little bedroom seemed very luxurious 
and I could congratulate myself on having arrived 
at El-Oued, despite ominous warnings of exhaustion 
and possible starvation. 

Here was another curious village, with absolutely 
new characteristics; quite different from any I had 
seen hitherto. It has been compared to an enor- 
mous clump of beehives, for the roofs of the houses 
are a series of domes, in long lines and depressions 
between. Surely It is unnecessary to go so far afield 
for a comparison, w^hen rounded sand dunes stretch 
to the horizon, as far as eye can reach. Was it not 
by their configuration that the builders were In- 
spired? All the scene seemed to be formed on the 
bowl principle; whether Inverted, or not. The 
palm trees were planted in enormous artificial basins 
and it was strange Indeed to see their dark green 
foliage massed together, level with the market place, 
instead of towering high above one's head. A 
country like unto none other: golden hills alternat- 
ing with great green filled hollows: where there is 
nothing that will grow to meet men's needs save date 
palms. Always, and only dates, so absurdly inade- 
quate to fulfil the requirements of Europeans 



DAWN AND SUNSET 333 

and yet ample for the primitive children of the des- 
ert! 

The rich fruit nourishes their bodies: from the 
willowy pink wands they make cord to harness their 
beasts of burden. The young growth is sacrificed 
for a vegetable which tastes like pineapple : the trees 
too old to bear are tapped for el-Eugmi,^ resembhng 
cider, but heady if allowed to ferment. Many are 
the uses of the palm for the nomad. 

Once planted, in the surface water at the bottom 
of the hollows, which is raised by means of long 
drawn beams from the wells, they are so little trouble 
to cultivate. Think how that appeals to a people 
dwelling on sand, under an eternal sun, where the 
seasons slip so gradually into one another that, who 
knows when spring begins and it is already summer. 

It is winter now, but I, for one, cannot credit it, 
till the day ends, and the lord of the desert sinks 
to his rest in a sea of golden red flames. Bidding 
goodnight to the Ouled Nail woman, as she crosses 
the wide open space before the guarded gates of the 
Bureau Arabe, he wraps her in a garment of un- 
earthly vivid rose. Then, more gently, lights up 
the deep orange and dark blue draperies of the 
Souafa, who are busy making couscous in a closed- 
in, sheltered yard. When he has suddenly gone, 
El-Oued is cold : its houses dull grey. Within, they 
are always dark, being windowless, and thus com- 
pletely shut out his rays, keeping the Inhabitants in 
a perpetual sombre twilight; and the doors are so 

^ Palm wine. 



334 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

low that, small though the women are, they must 
bend to creep into their prisons. 

Though physical life need not be greatly strenu- 
ous, under that fiery sun It cannot fail to be ardent. 
Passions are strong and crude : the Faith of Islam, 
which burns steadily elsewhere, in the Souf leaps 
Into flame and blazes like a wind blown torch. 

On market day I went to the Mosque, to look 
down from Its high minaret over the palm gardens 
and the throng of men collected in the Square; but, 
chiefly, to pay my respects to the m'rabet, whose sat- 
ellites approach him with the deepest respect. He 
was seated on the threshold of the zaouia, which Is 
within the precincts, clad in the bright green robe 
worn by direct descendants of the Prophet. Even 
Mahomed, my guide, who was a thought too mod- 
ern for my taste, and had not hitherto impressed me 
with any evidences of religious fervour, bent before 
this old man, kissing the hem of his garment with 
reverential awe. 

Djemmds and koiihas and tombs of saints abound 
in the Souf, but most Impressive of all the religious 
buildings. Is the Zaouia of the Tidjania and the 
new mosque they are raising to the glory of God at 
Guemar. 

This neighbouring oasis and annexe of El-Oued 
Is situated eleven miles away over the sand. I rode 
there on my return journey and put up for a night 
at the house of the Khalifa Mohammed ben Bra- 
him, Caid of Guemar. He was far too dignified 
and polite to express over much surprise at the sup- 



DAWN AND SUNSET 335 

den apparition of an Englishwoman, asking for hos- 
pitality: and he is, as a matter of fact, very desirous 
that tourists should find their way to his village in 
sufficient numbers to justify him in opening an hotel. 
He had lately built a beautiful and very lofty hall, 
which ran along the entire length of his house, about 
twenty-five feet, where we breakfasted and dined 
together in solemn and solitary grandeur, and the 
Arab cooking, with its highly seasoned and novel 
dishes, was a treat after a long course of tinned 
foods. 

In the late afternoon I proposed that, with his 
permission, I would like to visit the Zaouia and 
though it struck me the suggestion by no means met 
with Monsieur le Cai'd's approval (for some un- 
known reason), as he offered no definite objection, 
I went off with Mahomed at my heels, wondering 
v/hat sort of a reception I would meet with (if any) 
or if my experiences at the mother house of this 
Order near Temacin, would be repeated and all the 
inhabitants vanish into strict seclusion on my arrival. 
Matters certainly did not look promising as we 
neared the group of buildings which seemed even 
more extensive and mysterious than those of the 
Zaouia of Tamelhat and were outlined against an 
opalescent sky tinted amethyst and pink. 

On one side of the road large gates opened on to 
a wide, square courtyard, beyond which was a high 
barrack, with tiny apertures far from the ground, 
which could only be women's quarters. In confir- 
mation of this, a few coarse negresses — slaves to 



336 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

all Intents and purposes — flaunting their draperies 
of orange and red came from the doorway and 
passed me, staring and laughing rudely. 

Mahomed had gone off in the opposite direction 
to seek admission and returned with a servant 
charged with messages of welcome. The m'rahet 
regretted profoundly that it was the hour of mogh'- 
reb and he must conduct prayers in the Mosque, 
but his sons would take his place and receive me. 

This was most satisfactory: a message that un- 
locked doors and admitted me to the interior of the 
Zaoui'a : Into a long, lofty apartment carpeted with 
soft rugs, ornamented with frescoes and furnished, 
unfortunately, with chairs, tables and a sofa from 
France. 

My hosts were most affable and actually asked 
me to remain for a fortnight, a month — as long as 
I wished ! The invitation so staggered me that I 
hardly knew for the moment what to reply and had 
I been really sure that they desired it, I would 
gladly have stayed for a time In that remote, silent, 
cloistered retreat. Where would they have secluded 
me? 

The room opened on to a high walled garden and 
after tea we went to see the well — that only partly 
succeeded in keeping alive the drooping terebinth 
trees : the friendly pigeons, which circled above our 
heads and the pet gazelles. These dainty little 
creatures were kept in netted cages, but the two 
brothers let them out and played with them, making 
them race after each other round and round the gar- 



DAWN AND SUNSET 337 

den and spring into the air with wonderful lightness 
and grace. They seemed so little afraid of us and 
so accustomed to this game, that I came to the con- 
clusion it was not merely an entertainment for my 
benefit, though I would hardly have suspected that 
my very grave and dignified hosts condescended to 
such infantine pursuits. 

All the time I was wishing that I might visit the 
ladies, but it is such bad manners to mention them, 
that I refrained from doing so ; and this, not only at 
the Zaouia, but also at the Caid's. He too invited 
me to prolong my visit till Achoura, when the girls 
and the divorced women — all who are free — hold 
a swinging festival amongst the palm trees in hon- 
our (did they but know it) of the sun. 

Perhaps, with luck, I may find my way back, via 
Tunis, to Guemar. It Is a beautiful village at any 
time, and, from the terrace of the Caid's house at 
dawn, it was a dream. 

An hour later I was in the saddle surrounded by 
the sand dunes again. 

Of those days spent amongst the solitudes, I have 
brought away ineffaceable memories, which can 
neither be set down on paper, nor spoken in words. 
They are of a silence that, for me, was full of sound. 
It may have been the sand shifting invisibly grain 
by grain : it may have been the drinn shaken by the 
wind: it may have been, so say the Chambaas,^ the 
souls of dead m'rabets, who sound their tambourines 
in the ether betwixt sand and sky. 

^ Nomads. 



338 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

There was the Hght: the strange wonders of ev- 
ery sunset and " the blood red cloud of dawn: " the 
daily twin dramas of the skies : so that, for me, " the 
evening and the morning made the . . . day." 



CHAPTER XXXIII 

THE STORY OF SI MAHMOUD SAADI ; A CHILD OF 
MISFORTUNE 

" One day, which is yet far distant, there will 
enter within your walls a daughter of the stranger, 
coming from a country where the sun sinks every 
night in the heavens . . , This woman will be- 
come a child of Islam, for she will have renounced 
the errors of her people and she will share the couch 
of a true believer." 
Prophecy of the M'rabet Sidi Abd-el- 

QUADER-EL-GOUGUI, WHO DIED AT TeMACIN. 

IN the dawn of this century, when the Sahara 
and the intimate life of its inhabitants were 
still wrapped in a profound mystery for the ma- 
jority of Europeans, French literature was enriched 
by the writings of a young Tunisian scholar, who 
travelled in Oran, ostensibly seeking enlightenment 
on certain points of the Faith of Islam and visiting 
the ZaouTas of the SoutL 

Some contributions to " Jkhbar" a North Af- 
rican journal, which were the result of these wan- 
derings, are veritable prose poems giving, in the 
most beautiful, expressive language and with won- 
derful visualising power, impressions of life in the 
Koranic Colleges. 

339 



340 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

Nor was that all. The Si Mahmoud-ould-Ali, 
who frequented the religious schools and who be- 
came an initiate of the Kadrya, wearing, and recog- 
nised by the rosary of that Order, had already been 
a wanderer on the Hauts Plateaux, in the Tunisian 
Sahel, in the Sahara of Constantine and was more 
generally known as Si Mahmoud Saadi. Under 
this pseudonym the young student of letters noted 
down the lives of Berber and Jew, of soldier, fel- 
lah ^ and nomad, and — more than that — had actu- 
ally been a dweller In tents, sharing the bread of the 
Saharien; had served as a Cavalier du Makhzen; 
had borne the insupportable rays of a pitiless August 
sun in the Desert, shaded only by the cupolas of El- 
Oued. 

Rejoicing in a life of physical and mental freedom 
unknown to Europe; unhampered by the prejudices, 
the conventions and the pettiness of cities and 
greatly enamoured of this enchanted country, no 
one was better qualified to picture it for the civilised 
world. 

Welcomed everywhere and even reverenced by 
the people for a practised acquaintance with the 
healing art, due to earlier and discontinued study, 
no one had better opportunities for getting at the 
very heart of things kept hidden by a secretive race, 
nor greater facility in materialising this intimate 
knowledge in words gilded by the magic of genius. 

Yet, In point of fact, it was no Tunisian scholar 
who led this varied strange career: neither Si Mah- 

1 Tiller of the soil. 




From "Notes de Route" 
By Courtesy of M. a. fasqnelle 

Si Mahmoud Saadi 



STORY OF SI MAHMOUD SAADI 341 

moud-ould-AH, nor SI Mahmoud-Saadi ever existed 
except as a disguise and on paper. These were but 
noms de plume used by the real writer, a Russian 
and a woman. 

She was such a young woman too — just a mere 
girl — when she elected to identify herself with 
" the Republic of the Sand." Perhaps it was the 
Faith of Islam, which she professed, that attracted 
her to dwell with followers of the Prophet, rather 
than with Christians. Perhaps it was her dire pov- 
erty which drove her out of Europe to be amongst 
those yet poorer than herself. Perhaps it was that 
she might escape in the solitudes the stigma which 
tradition, with cruel strange injustice, insists shall 
be attached to the child whose parents have sinned 
in bringing It Into the world. 

Her mother, Natalie d'Eberhardt, widow of Gen- 
eral de Moerder, had quitted Russia for Geneva 
In 1873 ^^d it was four years later. In the house of 
her great uncle, a political exile, that Isabelle Eber- 
hardt was born. 

The little fatherless girl had opened her eyes on 
life in the home of an eccentric, a misanthrope; but 
a man of liberal ideas and high culture. When she 
had passed out of the baby stage, he appointed him- 
self her tutor; educated and trained her as If she 
had been a boy. At eighteen she was able to write 
with facility In four languages; French, Russian, 
German and Arabic and, having the run of a savant's 
library, she had ample opportunity to develop her 
literary gifts. She began to study medicine as a 



342 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

career, but as soon as she was absolutely free to 
make her own choice, she abandoned it for litera- 
ture. — " I write, as I love," she said in a letter from 
Bone, " probably because such is my destiny, and it 
is my only consolation." The taste was inherited 
from her mother, also a writer, but whose work 
has been entirely eclipsed by that of her more bril- 
liant child. 

It was in 1897 that mother and daughter went to- 
gether to the shores of North Africa, to Bone. 
Why they did so has never been definitely stated, to 
my knowledge, but it might have been on account of 
Madame de Moerder's failing health, and she died 
there In less than a twelvemonth after their arrival. 
Isabelle had, in the meantime, devoted herself to 
study and to completely mastering the language of 
the country. She also entered into correspondence 
with M. Ali Abdul-Wahab, a well known man of 
letters, who instructed her on certain questions of 
the Mussulman faith, which she had been unable 
to comprehend. Her mother, a Russian Christian, 
also became a Mahomedan and was buried in the 
little cemetery at Bone under the name " befo.re Al- 
lah " of Fathima Manoubia. 

Could there be a stranger psychological mystery 
than that enveloping these two women? Why 
should they adopt a belief so manifestly created by 
man for the benefit of man alone? It is almost in- 
conceivable that Isabelle could be a follower of 
Mahomet and yet write: "When women become 



STORY OF SI MAHMOUD SAADI 343 

the comrades of men, when they cease to be his 
playthings ; what a different existence will be theirs ! 
Meantime they are taught to breathe to order, to 
the rhythm of a valse." She too, who openly ex- 
pressed her horror of all forms of slavery! 
It seems like attempting to run life along two rails, 
diametrically opposed to one another: yet, there is 
no doubt that many men and women try, at all 
events, to reconcile themselves to such a course. 
Was the treatment of woman by the Mussulman one 
of the questions she could not understand and re- 
ferred to M. Abdul- Wahab? If so, it must have 
been something of a poser, but presumably he an- 
swered it with oriental subtlety and she was but 
twenty years of age. 

After her mother's death Isabelle Eberhardt re- 
turned to Geneva and remained with her great uncle 
until he also died, leaving her absolutely alone in 
the world with but a small sum of money. Little 
wonder that she turned her back on a town, which 
only held sad memories and was lured to Africa by 
Its beauty and Its sunshine, which had so appealed 
to her artistic, ardent temperament. The nomad 
spirit of a Russian ancestry that had traversed the 
steppe of her parents' country stirred strongly 
within her. " From my youth," she said, " I real- 
ised the great earth and I longed to reach its fur- 
thermost ends. I was not built to turn round in a 
ring with silken blinkers on." When she went 
south, she fell an easy prey to Its enchantment and 



344 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

could not rest content with Biskra, which even in 
the charm of earlier days could but suggest the 
completer radiance which lies beyond. 

There is no doubt, too, that her literary ambition 
had been fired by Fromentin's " Un Ete dans le Sa- 
hara " and that the romantic word painting of a 
landscape artist had strongly influenced her decision 
to go to the Great Desert in summer. " Perhaps 
you have guessed," she had previously written to the 
same friend, when she was at Bone with her mother, 
" that in my case, the ambition to make a name and a 
position by my pen (such as I have little confidence 
in doing and can hardly hope for) ranks only sec- 
ond in my life." It was destined to become her 
only one, so she went to Oued Souf because it was, 
as she joyfully announced, a country which had 
never yet appeared in print. 

Unfortunately for Isabelle Eberhardt she was a 
puzzle to her own sex and the other. She said her- 
self: — "Women do not understand me: they look 
upon me as a strange creature. I am too simple for 
their taste, which is only attracted by artifice and 
artificiality." Men, with a few notable exceptions, 
found her equally mysterious. It was incomprehen- 
sible to them, that a young girl could prefer a career 
of hardship and danger (such as many a man might 
shrink from encountering) to their polite attentions. 
They were unaware, of course, how much her birth 
and early unusual training had to do with her ap- 
parent eccentricities : and that, young though she 
was, she had already greatly suffered. 



STORY OF SI MAHMOUD SAADI 345 

As for the authorities in the south of Algeria, 
they did not know what to make of her. She had 
cast convention to the winds by dressing like an Arab 
man, because she delighted in the picturesqueness 
of the clothing, and considered it more suitable for 
the life and the country than the garments of a Euro- 
pean woman. They enquired if she were an Eng- 
lish Methodist, and her assurances that she was a 
Russian and a Mussulman only seemed to complicate 
matters further. That she should apply for per- 
mission to go to El Oued in summer was the climax. 
No doubt they thought her mad. 

Still, the Capitaine de Susbielle, who was en route 
to Touggourt, offered her the protection of his con- 
voy, which at first she gladly accepted. Before 
starting, however, she discovered he was not in sym- 
pathy with the natives and disliked by them, so that 
she was forced to make her excuses to him on the 
plea of important letters that had been delayed. In 
order to prosecute her studies, unhampered by the 
distrust of the Arabs, it was absolutely essential not 
to alienate them by identifying herself, in any par- 
ticular, with this officer. Letting the convoy get' 
well away in advance and sinking her personality In 
the disguise of Si Mahmoud Saadi the Tunisian 
scholar, Isabelle Eberhardt left Biskra on the i8th 
of July, 1899, for Touggourt, accompanied by two 
guides. 

She had a dreadful journey: sleeping in the mid- 
dle of the steppe unsheltered; suffering from fever 
and thirst and just escaped being lost in one of the 



346 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

salt lakes, dried up superficially by the sun, which 
are terrible deathtraps for the unwary traveller. 
On the sixth day she arrived at Touggourt and after 
a rest, reached her destination In the Souf on the 3rd 
August, already ill with fever: a bad beginning for 
a sojourn in the Desert. 

It cannot be suggested that the adoption of male 
attire, nor her magnificent horsemanship, deceived 
the educated Arabs, as to her sex, nor the mWahets 
at the heads of the Zaouias she visited, with their 
quick Instinct and peculiar insight Into the minutiae 
of temperament. Therefore It says much for their 
innate high bred courtesy and for her own person- 
ality that they were content to receive SI Mahmoud 
on the unchallenged representations of letters of in- 
troduction presented to them. Always bitterly re- 
senting curiosity themselves, they were willing not 
to Inquire into the motives of this pose of their un- 
usual guest, but respected her silence and betrayed 
neither surprise, nor resentment at her disguise. 
Moreover it was a Mussulman who asked their hos- 
pitality and their Instruction. 

On the other hand the young Tunisian scholar's 
role was so well played amongst the ignorant, the 
nomad, the fellah, the Spahl, the Bedouine, the 
dancer and the casual traveller of the steppe and 
the sand dunes that, unobserved and unsuspected, 
the Russian girl could read the pages of a book 
sealed for any other European — man or woman. 
In addition she had the Immense advantage of being 
their veritable co-religionist, wearing the chaplet of 



STORY OF SI MAHMOUD SAADI 347 

the Kadrya. Never anticipating the tragic results 
that were to ensue, Isabelle Eberhardt received her 
initiation Into this Order at the hands of the Sheikh 
Sidi Elhousslne ben Brahim at Guemar, during her 
second visit to the Souf in the summer of 1900. 

Her first stay at El Oued had been curtailed by 
bad attacks of fever, which sent her back to Europe, 
where she stayed at Marseilles for a fortnight with 
her half brother, Augustin de Moerder and after- 
wards in Paris, Italy and Sardinia : an unhappy rest- 
less spirit. In a short time she was overcome by 
nostalgia of the Desert, of " my Sahara," as she 
called it, " that I so love, and with a love obscure, 
mysterious, profound. Inexplicable, but very real and 
indestructible." She sought Its shelter again, flee- 
ing from the cruelty of an unsympathetic, mocking 
world and tried to drown her misery In the flood of 
radiance, which Illumines the South, and In Its peace 
which is nigh unto that of NIrvanah, She could 
not, and sought to put a finish to a lonely life, but 
her hand was stayed by an Arab, who adored her, 
SI Sliman EhnnI, Marechal of Spahls. In October 
they were married according to Mussulman rites : 
an alliance which rumour asserts was a manage 
hlanc. If she had hoped by this means to establish 
a ralson d'etre for her continued residence at EI 
Oued, this poor child of misfortune was doomed 
to disappointment. 

From time to time there had been friction between 
her and the authorities, some of whom seemed to im- 
agine she was " a danger to the public security " 



348 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

because, as she herself expressed it, she " preferred 
a burnous to a petticoat and the sand hills to the 
domestic hearth." Now they refused their sanction 
to a civil union between herself and Sliman Ehnni 
and, in the following year, seized a loophole of ex- 
cuse to exile her from the country of her adoption, 
which she so loved and had delighted to honour with 
her pen. 

In justice to the authorities it must be said that 
doubtless she was an anxiety as a foreign subject and 
owing to her eccentric mode of life, so that when 
an attempt was made to assassinate her, they were 
glad of the opportunity to cry " finis " to her wan- 
derings in the South. 

It was towards the close of January 1901, at the 
little village of Behima, about eight miles north of 
El Oued, that Isabelle Eberhardt was attacked by a 
madman, who struck her a violent blow on the head 
(fortunately protected by the hood of her humous) 
and also on her left arm, which was severely injured. 
At the enquiry, held at Constantine in the following 
June, the fanatic declared that he had not struck a 
European but " a Mussulman under a divine Im- 
pulse." His victim gave it as her opinion that. In 
all probability, her assailant had been Incited to kill 
her by the Khouans ^ of the Tidjania, to which Or- 
der he belonged. She explained that they wished 
to be rid of her, for the reason that she had joined 
their enemies, the Hadr'ia, who, realising this, were 
overcome by dismay when they heard of the crime. 

2 Brothers. 



STORY OF SI MAHMOUD SAADI 349 

It was a mystery of the Sahara, that can never be 
satisfactorily solved. 

For Isabelle Eberhardt, it was a tragedy. De- 
spite the protests of the Press, she was expelled 
from Algeria and her own Consulate refused to help 
her. When she demanded their reason, she was 
told that Arab male dress was unsuitable attire for 
a young Russian lady. 

Thus suddenly deprived of her means of subsist- 
ence as a journalist, contributing to Algerian papers 
her impressions of life in the south, and without 
other resources, Isabelle sought refuge with her un- 
cle (her mother's brother) at Marseilles and there 
worked at the docks as a porter. Of these days 
of utter wretchedness and destitution and of her 
experiences she has given some account in her novel 
" Trimadeur." 

They did not last long, happily. Again SHman 
Ehnni went to her rescue. They were married by 
civil rite at Marseilles and this enabled her to re- 
turn to the land of her adoption in February 1902, 
as the wife of a naturalised Frenchman. He had 
retired from soldiering and obtained a post at Tenes 
as secretary and interpreter. 

It was after this return that Isabelle Eberhardt 
as Si Mahmoud-ould-AlI travelled to the south of 
Oran to visit the zaoui'as; that she served as a sol- 
dier, wearing the blue humous of the Mokhaznl; 
that she was Insubordinate and took her punishment 
• — knowing It to be just — as it behoves* a brave 
woman, respecting the officer who ordered it de- 



350 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

spite her sex, and subsequently counting him amongst 
her best friends. 

Notwithstanding the sympathy and esteem shown 
to her by the Administrator at Tenes, M. Bouchot, 
public opinion was so strongly against Isabelle Eber- 
hardt that her life was rendered almost intolerable 
at Tenes and in 1904 she was again seized by a long- 
ing for the sand dunes of the south. She went as 
guide and interpreter to Figuig; and then alone to 
Beni-Ounif, Bechar and Kenadsa, but fever drove 
her back to the Hauts Plateaux, to a village lying 
on the left bank of the Oued Ain-Sefra, which she 
was destined never to leave. 

In the autumn, though still suffering from fever, 
she wrote to Sliman Ehnni that she was better and 
there was no cause for anxiety. Nevertheless he, 
devoted and faithful as ever, fearing he knew not 
what, joined her in October. The rains in that lit- 
tle village encircled by mountains, always break with 
violence and on the 21st the "yellow spring" had 
become a foaming torrent; had burst its bounds and 
rushed In amongst the houses. 

It was in the early morning that this happened 
and Isabelle Eberhardt was on the upper floor, pour- 
ing out coffee, when she became aware of the sudden 
inundation. Tearing down a plank from the roof 
she called to Sliman Ehnni to save himself on this 
raft; that she was all right and could swim. Her 
anxiety on his behalf helped to destroy her. As she 
reached the stair head the house collapsed and she 
lay burled In the ruins. 



STORY OF SI MAHMOUD SAAdI 351 

Thus suddenly, tragically, Si Mahmoud Saadi 
passed out of existence and a hapless girl of twenty- 
seven found a grave amongst the sand dunes she 
had so dearly loved. 

Though she rests for ever in a tomb at Ain-Sefra, 
I claim that her life-story belongs to the Souf, where 
she first realised the enchantment of the African 
Desert and where the fierce rays of a burning sun 
set alight the torch of her genius. 



LIST OF BOOKS CONSULTED 

CiVILITE MUSULMANE TeXTE 

Arabe de L'Iman Essoyouthi. 

( Translated into French ) 
Dans l'Ombre Chaude de 

l'Islam Isabelle Eberhardt and 

Victor Barrucand. 

Droit M'Zabite E. Zeys. 

Femmes Arabes Perron. 

Guerrara depuis sa Fondation a. de C. Motylinski. 

L'ALcfRiE Legen^dare C. Trumelet. 

L'Ame Musulmane {Revue de 

Paris, 1913) . . Ch. Genaux. 

La Famille Musulmane Marcel Morand. 

La Kabylie Le General Daumas. 

La Kabylie et les Coutumes 

Kabyles Hanoteaux et Letour- 

neux. 
Le M'Zab et son Annexion a 

la France Le Commandant Robin, 

Le M'Zab 

Le Sahara Algerien A Coyne. 

Les Industries d'Art Indigene Daumas. 

EN Algerie 

Lettres Familieres d'Algerie. Vachon. 

Magie et Religion dans lAf- Le Colonel Pein. 

RIQUE DU NORD 

Marabouts et Khouans E. Doutte. 

Rinn. 
353 



354 A WOMAN IN THE SAHARA 

Marche Arabe Richard 

Methode pour l'Etude de la 

Langue Arabe Mackerel. 

MONOGRAPHIE DU PaLAIS DE 

CoNSTANTiNE Feraud. 

Notes de Route Isabella Eberhardt. 

Recits de Kabylie E. Carrey. 

Un Ete dans le Sahara E. Fromentin. 

Voyage de la Mission Flat- 
ters H. Brosselard. 



